Read Ebook: In the land of the lion and sun or modern Persia by Wills C J Charles James

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Ebook has 3195 lines and 204603 words, and 64 pages

PAGE

I GO TO PERSIA.

POST JOURNEY TO THE CAPITAL.

Preparations for the start--Costume--Chaff bed--First fall--Extra luggage--The whip--Stages and their length--Appearance of the country, and climate--First stage--Turk guides--Welcome rest--Weighing firewood--Meana bug--Turcomanchai--Distances--New friends--Palace of Kerrij 20

TEHERAN.

Teheran--The Director's house--Persian visits--Etiquette--Pipes, details of--Tumbak?--Ceremony--Anecdote--The voice of the sluggard--Persian medicine explained--My prospects as a medico--Zoological Gardens 28

TEHERAN.

The Gulhaek Road--Visit to a virtuoso--His story--Persian New Year--Persian ladies--Titles--The harem--Its inhabitants--A eunuch--Lovely visions--The Dervish--The great festival--Miscellaneous uniform--At the Court of Persia--The Shah--The ceremony--Baksheesh--Rejoicings 36

HAMADAN.

Start for Hamadan--Bedding--Luggage makes the man--Stages--Meet Pierson--Istikhbals--Badraghah--Pierson's house--Hamadan wine--Mode of storing it--My horses--Abu Saif Mirza--His stratagem--Disinterested services--Persian logic--Pierson's horse's death--Horses put through their paces--I buy Salts and Senna--The prince's opinion--Money table--Edict 54

HAMADAN.

Morning rides--Engage servants--Dispensary--A bear-garden--Odd complaints--My servants get rich--Modakel--The distinction between picking and stealing--Servants--Their pay--Vails--Hakim Bashi--Delleh--Quinine--Discipline--I commence the cornet--The result of rivalry--Syud Houssein--Armenians--Cavalry officer--Claim to sanctity of the Armenians--Their position in the country--Jews 64

HAMADAN.

Tomb of Esther and Mordecai--Spurious coins--Treasure-finding--Interest--A gunge--Oppression--A cautious finder--Yari Khan--We become treasure-seekers--We find--Our cook--Toffee--Pole-buying--Modakel--I am nearly caught--A mad dog--Rioters punished--Murder of the innocents 75

HAMADAN.

Antelope--Hunting and hawking--Shooting from the saddle--Thief-catching--The prince offers his services as head-servant--Our hunting party--The prince takes the honours--Kabobs--A provincial grandee--His stud--Quail-shooting--A relative of the king--Persian dinner--Musicians and singers--Parlour magic--The ander?n--Cucumber-jam--Persian home-life--Grateful Armenians--Lizards--Talking lark--Pigeon-flying--Fantails--Pigeons' ornaments--Immorality of pigeon-flying--Card-playing--Chess--Games--Wrestling--Pehliwans--Gymnastics 84

KERMANSHAH.

Leave for Kermanshah, marching--Detail of arrangements--Horse-feeding--Peculiar way of bedding horses--Barley--Grape-feeding--On grass--Nawalla--Colt, anecdote of--Horses, various breeds of--Turkomans--Karabagh--Ispahan cobs--Gulf Arabs--Arabs--Rise in price of horses--Road cooking--Kangawar temple--Double snipe--Tents--Kara-Su River--Susmanis--Sana--Besit?n--Sir H. Rawlinson--Agha Hassan--Istikhbal--Kermanshah--As we turn in another turns out--Armenians--Their reason for apostatising--Presents of sweetmeats 100

KERMANSHAH.

I GO TO ISPAHAN.

Deficiency of furniture--Novel screws--Pseudo-masonry--Fate of the Im?d-u-dowlet's son--House-building--Kerind--New horse--Mule-buying--Start for Ispahan--Kanaats--Curious accident--Fish in kanaats--Loss of a dog--Pigeons--Pigeon-towers--Alarm of robbers--Put up in a mosque--Armenian village--Armenian villagers--Travellers' law--Tax-man at Dehbeed--Ispahan--The bridge--Julfa 123

JULFA.

Illness and death of horse--Groom takes sanctuary--Sharpness of Armenians--Julfa houses--K?rsis--Priests--Arachnoort--Monastery--Nunnery--Call to prayer--Girls' school--Ancient language of the Scriptures--Ignorance of priests--Liquor traffic--Sunday market--Loafers--Turkeys--Church Missionary school--Armenian schools 136

ISPAHAN.

Prince's physician--Visit the Prince-Governor--Justice--The bastinado--Its effects--The doctor's difficulties--Carpets--Aniline dyes--How to choose--Varieties--Nammad--Felt coats--Bad water--Baabis--A tragedy--The prince's view 145

JULFA AND ISPAHAN.

Julfa cathedral--The campanile--The monk--Gez--Kishmish wine--The bishop--The church--Its decorations--The day of judgment--The cemetery--Establishment of the Armenian captives in Julfa--Lost arts--Armenian artificers--Graves--Story of Rodolphe--Coffee-house--Tombstone bridges--Nunnery--Schools--Medical missionary--Church Missionary establishment--The Lazarist Fathers 157

ISPAHAN AND ITS ENVIRONS.

ISPAHAN AND ITS ENVIRONS.

Pig-sticking expedition--Ducks not tame, but wild--Ruined mosque with tile inscription--Ancient watch-towers--The hunting-ground--Beaters--We sight the pig--Our first victims--The bold Gholam--Our success--Pig's flesh--A present of pork--How Persians can be managed--Opium--Adulteration--Collection and preparation--Packing--Manoeuvres of the native maker--Opium-eating--Moderate use by aged Persians--My dispensary over the prison--I shift my quarters--Practice in the bazaar--An ungrateful baker--Sealing in lieu of signing--Seals--Wisdom of a village judge 176

ISPAHAN.

Cost of living--Servants--Our expenses--Price of provisions--Bargains--Crying off--Trade credits--Merchants--Civil suits--Bribery--Shopkeepers--Handicrafts--Damascening--Shoemakers--Other trades--Bankers--An Ispahani's estimate of the honesty of his fellow-townsmen 186

ISPAHAN.

Daily round--The river--Calico-rinsers--Worn-out mules and horses--Mode of treating the printed calico--Imitations of marks on T-cloths--Rise of the waters of the Zend-a-R?d--Pul-i-Koj?--Char Bagh--Plane-trees--The college--Silver doors--Tiled halls and mosque--Pulpit--Boorio--Hassir--Sleepers in the mosque--Cells of the students--Ispahan priests--Telegraph-office--Tanks--Causeways--Gate of royal garden--Governor's garden--Courtiers and hangers-on--Prisoners--Priests--The Im?m-i-Juma--My dispensary--Ruined bazaar--A day in the town--Bazaar breakfasts--Calico-printing--Painters--The maker of antiquities--Jade teapot--Visit to the Baabis--Hakim-bashi--Horse-market--The "Dar"--Executions--Ordinary--Blowing from guns--A girl trampled to death--Dying twice--Blowing from a mortar--Wholesale walling up alive--A narrow escape from, and horrible miscarriage in carrying it out--Burning alive--Crucifixions--Severity: its results 193

MY JOURNEY HOME AND MARCH TO SHIRAZ.

SHIRAZ.

Entry into Shiraz--Gaiety of Shirazis of both sexes--Public promenade--Different from the rest of Persians--Shiraz wine--Early lamb--Weights: their variety--Steelyards--Local custom of weighing--Wetting grass--Game--Wild animals--Buildings--Ornamental brickwork--Orange-trees--Fruits in bazaar--Type of ancient Persian--Ladies' dress--Fondness for music--Picnics--Warmth of climate--Diseases--The traveller Stanley--His magazine rifle and my landlord's chimney--Cholera--Great mortality--We march out and camp--Mysterious occurrence--Life in a garden--The "Shitoor-gooloo"--Bear and dog fight--The bear is killed 218

SHIRAZ WINE-MAKING.

Buy grapes for wine-making--Difficulty in getting them to the house--Wine-jars--Their preparation--Grapes rescued and brought in--Treading the grapes--Fermentation--Plunger-sticks--Varieties of Shiraz wine and their production--Stirring the liquor--Clearing the wine--My share, and its cost--Improvement by bottling--Wasps--Carboys--Covering them--Native manner of packing--Difficulties at custom-house--The Governor's photographic apparatus--Too many for me--A l?ti-p?ti 229

SHIRAZ AND FUSSA.

Cheapness of ice--Variety of ices--Their size--Mode of procuring ice--Water of Shiraz: its impurity--Camel-fight--Mode of obtaining the combatants--Mode of securing camels--Visit to Fussa--Mean-looking nag--His powers--See the patient--State of the sick-room--Dinner sent away--A second one arrives--A would-be room-fellow--I provide him with a bedroom--Progress of the case--Fertility of Fussa--Salt lake--End of the patient--Boat-building--Dog-cart--Want of roads--Tarantulas--Suicide of scorpions--Varieties--Experiment--Stings of scorpions--The Nishan 240

SHIRAZ--THE FAMINE.

Approach of famine--Closing of shops--Rise in mule-hire--Laying in of stores--Seizures of grain--Sale of goods by poor--Immigrations of villagers to the towns--Desertions of children--Increase of crime--Arrival of money from England--Orphanage--Labour question--K?mishah--Village ruffian--His punishment--Prince's accident--The kal?at--Mode of bringing it--Invitation to the ceremony--Procession--Gala dress of the prince--The arrival of the firman--Assemblage of grandees--The kal?at--The Kawam's kal?at--Return to town--Sacrifice of an ox 251

I FALL INTO THE HANDS OF BRIGANDS.

A call to a patient--Start on post-horses--No horses--I carry a lantern--The Bakhtiaris--Fall among thieves--They strip me--And march me off--Mode of disguise of thieves--Attacked by footmen--Division of spoils--Fate of a priest--Valuing my kit--Ignorance of my captors--A welcome sight--My escape--I get a horse--Reach Yezdikhast--Old women get thorns out of my feet--Want of hospitality of head-man of Yezdikhast--Arrive at K?mishah--Kindness of a postmaster--More robbers--Avoid them--Am repaid for my lost kit--Fate of my robbers 259

SHIRAZ.

The Muschir--His policy and wealth--His struggle with the king's uncle--He is bastinadoed--His banishment to Kerbela--The Kawam--Mirza Naim--Siege of Zinjan--Cruelties to Mirza Naim--Reply to an author's statement--Cashmere shawls--Anecdote--Garden of Dilgoosha--Warm spring--"Sau-Sau-Rac"--The Well of Death--Execution--Wife-killing--Tomb of Rich--Tomb of Hafiz--Tomb of Saadi--A moral tale--Omens--Incident at tomb of Hafiz 270

SHIRAZ--PERSIAN CUSTOMS.

The Tazzia--Persian pulpit--Prince's flirtations--Month of mourning--Details of performance--Breast-beaters--Hymn in honour of the king--The performers--Processions--Detail of the tragedy--Interludes--Rosehkhaneh--The Ramazan--The fast--Hospitalities--Zal?bi--Religious affectation--Reading poetry--A paraphrase--A quotation--Books and their covers--Calamdans--Writing a letter--Sealing--Specimen of an ordinary letter--Apparent piety--The evil eye--Talismans--I procure one 279

SHIRAZ.

Bagh-i-Takht--Jews' burial-ground--Christians' cemetery--Its desecration--Sergeant Collins's murder--Capture and execution of the robbers--How it was brought home to them--Memorial to Collins--Health of the staff--Persians as servants--Persian cuisine--Kabobs, varieties of--English dinners--Confectionery--Fruits--Vegetables--Pickles, etc.--Cook-shops--Trotters--Mode of selling meat--Game--Eggs--Wild vegetables--Potatoes--Disinclination to use new seeds, and its cause--Narcissus--General use of flower decoration--Tame birds--Wild birds--White ants--Damaging the line--Hamilton poles 292

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