Читать книгу A Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, in the Years 1808 and 1809 - James Justinian Morier - Страница 9

Table of Contents

I. PERSIA—ADMINISTRATION OF THE GOVERNMENTS—FARSISTAN—MEKRAN—BALOUCHES—COAST OF THE GULPH—ISLANDS OF THE GULPH—PEARL FISHERY.—II. BUSHIRE: SITUATION—DESCRIPTION—TRADE—VIEW—RUINS OF RESHIRE—HALILA—BUSHIRE ROADS—WATER—WEATHER—HEALTHINESS—WOMEN OF BUSHIRE—SUPERSTITIONS.—III. ANIMALS OF THE DASHTISTAN: HORSES—DOG—WHITE FOX—WILD BEASTS—HAWKS—THE JERBOA.

I. In historical interest, Persia is perhaps superior to any Asiatic empire, because more nearly connected with the fortunes of Europe; and its natural situation shares the importance; for its boundaries (defined and fortified by lofty ranges, which are pervious only through passes of very difficult access,) are prominent and decided objects in the general geography of Asia. We had hitherto seen only the southern chain: nothing can be more strongly marked than the abrupt and forbidding surface of those mountains, which bind the shore from Cape Jasques to the deepest recesses of the gulph. The little plain of the Dashtistan, (that of Bushire) which seems to have encroached upon the sea, is yet the most extensive portion of even land, which relieves however momentarily the constant and chilling succession of high and dreary lands along the coast. But beyond these mountains are frequently extensive plains, confined by a second range, which likewise run parallel to the coast. This is the case behind Congoon: and in the route to Shiraz we found several successive plains, (of great absolute elevation indeed, but) thus separated from each other by alternate ranges of higher land. The plain of Merdasht, beyond Shiraz, is the Hollow Persis of ancient geography. These great inequalities of surface naturally produce a corresponding variety of climates.

The administration of the provinces of Persia is now committed to the Princes. The jurisdiction of Prince Hossein Ali Mirza, one of the King’s Sons, is very extensive: it comprises, under the general name of Farsistan, not only the original province of which Shiraz was the capital (as subsequently it became that of all Persia, and as it still is of the governments combined under the Prince) but Laristan also, to the south; and Bebehan to the north-west; which severally, as well as Farsistan, possessed before their particular Beglerbegs.

Of Farsistan, under this its present more extensive signification, the hot and desert country is called the Germesir, a generic term for a warm region, which will be recognised under the ancient appellations of Germania, Kermania, or Carmania. The termination of the Persian dominion in this direction, is an undefined tract between the Germesir and the Mekran. It was the ancient boast of Persia, that its boundaries were not a petty stream or an imaginary line, but ranges of impervious mountains or deserts as impervious. In this quarter there is little probability that the country will ever become less valuable as a frontier, by becoming more cultivated and better inhabited. The land is put to so little use, that no power would greatly care to press the extension of an authority so unprofitable. Every age has marked the unalterable barbarism of the soil and of the people. The Balouchistan, or the country of the Balouches, the most desert region of the coast begins about Minou, on the west of Cape Jasques. Their country is perhaps nearly the Mekran of geography. They once owned subjection to Persia, but they have now resumed the independance of Arabs, and live in wandering communities under the government of their own Sheiks, of whom two are pre-eminent. They have indeed still some little commercial connexion with Persia, and occasionally a Balouche is to be seen in Bushire selling his scanty wares, mostly the mats of their own manufacture. One of their Sheiks lives at Guadel on the coast of Mekran; but in the interior, according to the account given by a Balouche to Captain Salter, there is a very potent king, though I cannot add from the same authority, whether he is of their own extraction. They live in continual wars with each other; or let themselves out to the different small powers in the gulph as soldiers. Many of the guards of the Sheik of Bushire are Balouches; and the Seapoys also on board the Arab ships are of the same tribes.

In religion they are Mahomedans; and like all those of India, are Sunnis: but they have few means of preserving the genuineness of any profession of faith; and their ignorance has already confounded their tenets with those of a very different original. The same common barbarism has indeed blended the Affghan, the Seik, and the Balouche into one class: there may be among them some beard or whisker more or less, some animal or food which they hold unclean above all others, some indescribable difference of opinion which severs them from their neighbours, but in savageness they are all identified. Those on the coast still live almost exclusively on fish, as in the days of Nearchus; though I am told they no longer build their houses with the bones. The grampus (possibly, the whale of Arrian) is still numerous on the shores. The Envoy remembered to have seen at Bushire on a former occasion, a dog of an immense size, which a Balouche had given to Mr. Galley, the Resident at that time: the man added, that the mountains towards his country were all very high. His dog seemed to confirm the assertion, for he was defended against the cold of his native region, by a coat of thick and tufted hair.

Though the Balouches scarcely advance within the gulph, yet the native Persians do not fully occupy their own shores. The coast still retains a great proportion of Arab families. The Dashtistan, which extends from Cape Bang to the plain of Bushire, was till lately governed by them. The district of Dasti, also along the coast from Bushire to below Congoon, still remains under their rule: and the Arab Sheik of Congoon in the adjoining territory, possesses a kind of independance.

At Tauhree, (or Tahrie) a port just below Congoon, are extensive ruins and sculptures, with the Persepolitan character. The landmarks for the entrance of the harbour are two large white spots, on the summit of a mountain, which the people of the country affirm to have been made by the hand of man; and which, on the same traditional authority, are said to have been formerly covered with glass. The reflection thus produced by the sun’s rays, rendered the object visible to a great distance at sea, and guided the navigator in safety into the road. Some of the glass is said to remain at this day. Among the ruins of the city are two wells pierced to a great depth; and stabling for a hundred horses excavated from the solid rock: the existence of these remains, I understand, Mr. B—k of the E. I. Company’s service ascertained himself.

At Kharrack, a place still further in the progress down the Gulph, between Cape Sertes and Cape Bustion, is a town which was once in the possession of the Danes; and it is singular that the people who claim a Danish blood are still very fair complexioned, and have light red hair, which may confirm their traditional accounts of their origin. The same nation had also an establishment in a deep bay near Musseldom; and the fort exists to this day. On Cape Bustion there is a mine of copper, which was formerly worked by the Portuguese: they built also a fort there, which still exists, but the mine is no longer worked, and indeed is almost forgotten. Some years ago, Mr. Bruce, the Assistant Resident at Bushire, was a prisoner among the Arabs on this part of the coast. He was told, that immediately behind the range of mountains which lines their shore, there was a river that came from near Shiraz, and run down to Gombroon; this is, probably, the Bend-emir, which, according to other accounts, is traced indeed towards Gombroon, but there expends itself in the sands. Khoresser is the name of a small river which falls into the sea nearly under the Asses Ears; and on the banks of which is situated the town of Tangistoun. At the mouth of this river is a small island, formed by the sands brought down; which adapts this situation to Arrian’s account of Hieratemis. At the place marked by Dr. Vincent as Podargus there is now no torrent: but I learn from Dr. Jukes and Mr. Bruce, that at Harem, situated thirty miles inland on the declivity of the mountains to the eastward, there is a water which finds its way to the sea, and may, perhaps, accord with the position required.

The islands in the Gulph of Persia retain little of their political celebrity. Ormus (ever the most barren, its soil being composed of salt and sulphur) still displays its arched reservoirs, which afford good watering places for vessels, and which are said never to dry up. On the island of Kenn, according to the people of the country, is found, after rain, gold dust in the channels of the torrents. And Bahrein, which is now in the hands of the Wahabees, is still noted for the fresh springs which issue from the earth under the sea, and from which the Arabs contrive to water their ships by placing over the spot a vessel with a syphon attached to it. Captain Skeine, who commanded an Arab ship, told the gentleman (who communicated the circumstances to me), that he had himself drawn the water at the depth of one fathom. The same submarine springs extend along the neighbouring coast of Arabia. Kharrack, which is now the principal watering place on the north of the Gulph, and the island, where the pilots for the Bussorah river are stationed, is perhaps good for few other purposes. The Sheik indeed, though enjoying profound peace, presented memorials to the Sheik of Bushire, representing that his troops and himself were in a state of starvation. Among the duties entrusted by the Government of Shiraz to the Nasakchee Bashee, he was instructed to proceed to Kharrack, to inspect the fortifications, and to report on their capability of defence.

Pearl-Fishery.—There is, perhaps, no place in the world where those things which are esteemed riches among men, abound more than in the Persian gulph. Its bottom is studded with pearls, and its coasts with mines of precious ore. The island of Bahrein, on the Arabian shore, has been considered the most productive bank of the pearl oysters: but the island of Kharrack now shares the reputation. The fishery extends along the whole of the Arabian coast, and to a large proportion of the Persian side of the gulph. Verdistan, Nabon, and Busheab, on that side, are more particularly mentioned; but indeed it is a general rule, that wherever in the gulph there is a shoal, there is also the pearl oyster.

The fishery, though still in itself as prolific as ever, is not perhaps carried on with all the activity of former years; since it declined in consequence by the transfer of the English market to the banks of the coast of Ceylon. But the Persian pearl is never without a demand; though little of the produce of the fishery comes direct into Persia. The trade has now almost entirely centred at Muscat. From Muscat the greater part of the pearls are exported to Surat; and, as the agents of the Indian merchants are constantly on the spot, and as the fishers prefer the certain sale of their merchandize there to a higher but less regular price in any other market, the pearls may often be bought at a less price in India, than to an individual they would have been sold in Arabia. There are two kinds; the yellow pearl, which is sent to the Mahratta market; and the white pearl, which is circulated through Bussorah and Bagdad into Asia Minor, and thence into the heart of Europe; though, indeed, a large proportion of the whole is arrested in its progress at Constantinople to deck the Sultanas of the Seraglio. The pearl of Ceylon peels off; that of the Gulph is as firm as the rock upon which it grows; and, though it loses in colour and water 1 per cent. annually for fifty years, yet it still loses less than that of Ceylon. It ceases after fifty years to lose any thing.

About twenty years ago the fishery was farmed out by the different chiefs along the coast: thus the Sheiks of Bahrein and of El Katif, having assumed a certain portion of the Pearl Bank, obliged every speculator to pay them a certain sum for the right of fishing. At present, however, the trade which still employs a considerable number of boats is carried on entirely by individuals. There are two modes of speculation: the first, by which the adventurer charters a boat by the month or by the season; in this boat he sends his agent to superintend the whole, with a crew of about fifteen men, including generally five or six divers. The divers commence their work at sun-rise and finish at sun-set. The oysters, that have been brought up, are successively confided to the superintendant, and when the business of the day is done, they are opened on a piece of white linen: the agent of course keeping a very active inspection over every shell. The man who, on opening an oyster, finds a valuable pearl, immediately puts it into his mouth, by which they fancy that it gains a finer water; and, at the end of the fishery, he is entitled to a present. The whole speculation costs about one hundred and fifty piastres a month; the divers getting ten piastres; and the rest of the crew in proportion. The second and the safest mode of adventure is by an agreement between two parties, where one defrays all the expences of the boat and provisions, &c. and the other conducts the labours of the fishery. The pearl obtained undergoes a valuation, according to which it is equally divided: but the speculator is further entitled by the terms of the partnership to purchase the other half of the pearl at ten per cent. lower than the market price.

The divers seldom live to a great age. Their bodies break out in sores, and their eyes become very weak and blood-shot. They can remain under water five minutes; and their dives succeed one another very rapidly, as by delay the state of their bodies would soon prevent the renewal of the exertion. They oil the orifice of the ears, and put a horn over their nose. In general life they are restricted to a certain regimen; and to food composed of dates and other light ingredients. They can dive from ten to fifteen fathoms, and sometimes even more; and their prices increase according to the depth. The largest pearl are generally found in the deepest water, as the success on the bank of Kharrack, which lies very low, has demonstrated. From such depths, and on this bank, the most valuable pearls have been brought up; the largest indeed which Sir Harford Jones ever saw, was one that had been fished up at Kharrack in nineteen fathoms water.

It has been often contested, whether the pearl in the live oyster is as hard as it appears in the market; or whether it acquires its consistence by exposure. I was assured by a gentleman (who had been encamped at Congoon close to the bank; and who had often bought the oysters from the boys, as they came out of the water,) that he had opened the shell immediately, and when the fish was still alive, had found the pearl already hard and formed. He had frequently also cut the pearl in two, and ascertained it to be equally hard throughout, in layers like the coats of an onion. But Sir Harford Jones, who has had much knowledge of the fishery, informs me, that it is easy by pressing the pearl between the fingers, when first taken out of the shell, to feel that it has not yet attained its ultimate consistency. A very short exposure, however, to the air gives the hardness. The two opinions are easily reconcileable by supposing, either a misconception in language of the relative term hard, (by which one authority may mean every thing in the oyster which is not gelatinous, while the other would confine it more strictly to the full and perfect consistency of the pearl;) or by admitting that there may be an original difference in the character of the two species, the yellow and the white pearl; while the identity of the specimen, on which either observation has been formed, has not been noted.

The fish itself is fine eating; nor, indeed in this respect is there any difference between the common and the pearl oyster. The seed pearls, which are very indifferent, are arranged round the lips of the oyster, as if they were inlaid by the hand of an artist. The large pearl is nearly in the centre of the shell, and in the middle of the fish.

In Persia the pearl is employed for less noble ornaments than in Europe: there it is principally reserved to adorn the kaleoons or water pipes, the tassels for bridles, some trinkets, the inlaying of looking glasses and toys, for which indeed the inferior kinds are used; or, when devoted more immediately to their persons, it is generally strung as beads to twist about in the hand, or as a rosary for prayer.

The fishermen always augur a good season of the pearl, when there have been plentiful rains; and so accurately has experience taught them, that when corn is very cheap they increase their demands for fishing. The connexion is so well ascertained, (at least so fully credited, not by them only, but by the merchants,) that the prices paid to the fishermen are, in fact, always raised, when there have been great rains.

II. Bushire (or more properly Abuschahr, for the former is but the corruption of an English sailor) is now the principal Port of Persia. It stands in lat. 28°. 59. in long. 50°. 43. E. of Greenwich. It is situated on the extremity of a peninsula, which is formed by the sea on one side, and on the other by an inlet terminating in extensive swamps. At the narrowest part of this neck of land the seas, in the equinoctial spring tides, have sometimes met and rendered it an island; but this has happened once only during the ten years which preceded our visit, and the effect then continued but two or three days; and so visible is the present encroachment of the land upon the inlet, that the recurrence of such an overflow will soon be entirely impossible. Every appearance, indeed, proves, that the whole of the peninsula has been thus gained from the sea. The extreme flatness of the general surface, the soil itself, the water, and the relative position of the whole peninsula to the mountains which rise abruptly from its inland extremities, suggest the supposition of such an accumulation.

On the southern bank of the inlet is a long range of rocks, which, though now two or three miles distant, may at one time have been washed by the sea. In digging for water, the people of the peninsula have sunk wells to the depth of thirty fathoms; and before they could reach the spring they have been obliged to perforate three layers of a soft stone composed of sand and shells. Generally of the whole soil, sand is the principal ingredient.

The town itself of Bushire occupies the very point of the peninsula, and forms a triangle, of which the base on the land side is alone fortified. At unequal distances along the walls, there are twelve towers, two of which form the town-gate; they are all chequered at the top by holes, through which the inhabitants may point their musketry, and those at the gates have a variety of such contrivances. There is at the the door a large brass Portuguese gun, a sixty-eight pounder, on a very uncertain carriage; besides two or three in a much ruder state. It is said that on some invasion when the place was beset, this gun was fired, but the concussion was so great and unexpected, that it blew open the gates, shook down fragments of the towers, and gave the enemy an easy entrance. The materials of the town (a soft sandy stone, incrustated with shells) are drawn from the ruins of Reshire, in its neighbourhood. Most of the adjacent villages are built of the same stone, the only species indeed found in the peninsula, and which was already thus prepared for their use in the remains of Reshire. But such materials are continually decomposing; and the dust which falls from them adds to the already sandy ground-work of their streets, and, when set in motion by the wind or by a passing caravan, creates an impenetrable cloud. The streets are from six to eight feet wide, and display on each side nothing but inhospitable walls. A great man’s dwelling (there are nine in Bushire) is distinguished by a wind chimney. This is a square turret on the sides of which are perpendicular apertures, and in the interior of which are crossed divisions, which form different currents of air, and communicate some comfort to the heated apartments of the house. But the comfort is not wholly without danger; as in an earthquake some years ago the turrets were thrown down to the great damage of the surrounding buildings.

There are supposed to be in the town four hundred houses, besides several alleys of date-tree-huts on entering the gates, which may add an equal number to the whole. The number of inhabitants is disproportionably large, but it is calculated that there are ten thousand persons in the place. There are four mosques of the Sheyahs, and three of the Sunnis; and there are two Hummums and two Caravanserais; but there is no public building in Bushire which deserves any more particular description. The old English factory is a large straggling building near the sea side; the left wing is breaking down. The Bazars are exactly those of a provincial town in Turkey. The shop is a little platform, raised about two feet above the foot-path; where the Vender, just reserving the little space upon which he squats, displays his wares. The shops, as in Turkey, are opened in the morning and shut at night, when the trader returns to his dwelling; for the shop is but the receptacle for his goods.

On the 2d Nov. a large fleet of boats came into Bushire from the coast, laden with coarse linen for turbans, earthen pots, mats, &c. for which they carry away dates. These boats keep together for fear of the Joasmee pirates.

To the east of the town there is a small elevation, which happily destroys the equalities of the buildings, and renders it no uninteresting subject for a sketch, when enlivened by its concomitants, water and shipping. Whatever may have been the former state of the immediate neighbourhood, it is certain that there are now no longer to be found the gardens and plantations which Nearchus described, or even those which Captain Simmons delineated. Had Nearchus again described Bushire and its territory in this day, he would have said, that a few cotton bushes, here and there date trees, now and then a Konar tree, with water melons, berinjauts, and cucumbers, are the only verdant objects which, in any measure, alleviate the glare of its sandy plain.

I took a sketch of Bushire from a rising spot near a well on a public road.24 A troop of young camel-drivers, who were going merrily along, soon discovered me; and long continued to vociferate, with many other names and jokes, “Frangui, Frangui,” the common appellation in the East of every European.

The new factory is about one mile seven-eights from the town. The Resident’s guard is composed of seapoys, who, by the regulations, should be changed every five years, but they are permitted to remain till they become so lax in discipline as scarcely to deserve the name of soldiers. The guard is mustered at sun-set, when they mostly appear in their shirts and night-caps, and the sentries walk about without their muskets.

In a few days after our landing we rode to the ruins of Reshire. The more immediate remains occupy an inconsiderable part of the site of the old city, and indeed consist rather of the fortress than of the general mass of buildings. The place is surrounded by villages built of the materials, and (as other fragments about them still attest) upon the site also of the original town. One of these villages is called Imaum Zadé, and is exempt from taxes, because its inhabitants claim all to be descended from Mahomed.

Bushire. Drawn by James Morier Esqr. Published by Messrs. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, Paternoster Row, May 1, 1811.

The fortress itself was built by the Portuguese, though the people around are jealous of the acknowledgment, and substitute as its founder their own Shah Abbas. On a hasty calculation it must have been a square of two hundred yards. The reservoirs for water are still to be seen; but a lad, whom we met in the enclosure, told us that he and his companions were at work in destroying the Hummums. Twenty-five years ago the Envoy saw it in many parts entire, with some of the houses still standing. It is now a heap of dirt and rubbish. The line of the fort, indeed, is traced by the ditch, which is excavated from the rock; and the gateways also are discoverable, and some little masonry remains to mark their strength. There are some flat and oblong stones on the outside of the fort, which we conceived to have been placed over Portuguese tombs. There are, however, some curious characters upon them, which Sir Harford Jones, who recollects them when they were more legible, conceives to be between the old Cufick and the Nekshi.

In another excursion we advanced to Halila, about nine miles from the town, and on the south of the peninsula of Bushire. Here, indeed, there is a projection of the land, where it is still possible for very high tides to rise above the surface. The ground is very much broken into caverns and deep chasms. Halila is a small village; it has a trifling square fort, with a tower at each angle, but without any guns. Cotton is sown more systematically in the territory immediately adjacent to Halila than in that of Bushire. Here and there over the plain are some little spots sacred to the dead, and defended by small works of stones.

The Sapphire lay about four miles off the shore, in four feet and a half low water, and in quarter less five at high. The ground was marl and very thick mud, so tenacious, that it was necessary every three or four days to move the anchor. The refraction was so great, that, for their daily observations at the sun’s meridian, they were obliged to allow for it more than what is noted in the nautical tables. In my visit on board, I took the following bearings from the quarter-deck. Town N. 55 E. Concorde Lodge E. Halila Peak S. 70 E. Asses Ears and Reshire Point S. 35 E. Cape Bang (the extremity of the land) N. 11 E.

The water of Bushire has a cathartic quality of most immediate effect in a stranger’s habit, but after the experience of about a month it ceases to have so violent a power.

The meteorological journal which I kept may not be useless, and I give therefore the month of November in the Appendix. On the night of the 10th of that month, a most violent storm blew from the north-west. The whole atmosphere was in a blaze of fire; the claps of thunder succeeded one another with a rapidity, which rendered them scarcely separable, and the rain poured down in torrents; but when all was over, the air possessed a freshness which was most grateful. The storms from the N. W. are very frequent in the winter; and though in no part of the world do I recollect to have seen one so tremendous as this, I am told that it was not to be compared with some which are experienced at Bushire.

In three or four days the mountains which bore N. N. E. from our dwelling were already covered with snow. This was reckoned early in the season. The people soon begun to put on their warmer clothing. Coughs and colds became very prevalent, particularly among the Indian servants, who were clad more lightly than either the Europeans or the natives.

About the 20th of November the people commence ploughing; the soil is so light that it is turned up with very little labour; the plough, therefore, is dragged mostly by one ox only, and not unfrequently even by an ass. All their agricultural implements are of the rudest construction. At this period, larks fly about in large numbers, and feed upon the seed just sowing. There are also great flocks of pigeons, cormorants, curlews, and hoobaras (bustards). On the 25th we saw a white swallow flitting about the house. Sparrows were not so numerous as in the beginning of the month. Flies appeared with a south wind; but were scarce when it blew from the northward. The fruits in season were melons, dates, pomegranates, apples, pears, and sweet limes; and a small and very pleasant orange was just coming in. Our vegetables were spinage, bendes, and onions, and cabbages and turnips from Bussora. Of our meat, the finest was mutton, veal was coarse, but the beef pretty good, and the fowls were admirable. There were no turkies or geese indeed; nor ducks, except some that we occasionally got from Bussora.

The climate of Bushire is healthy, if we might judge from the two or three examples of strong and active old age which came within our notice: one, my own Persian master, Mollah Hassan; another in the Resident’s family, who has trimmed pipes for two-thirds of a century, and who was a young man with mustachios and a sprouting beard, when Nadir Shah was at Shiraz. Another is an old fellow of the name of Ayecal, which, from the keenness of his love of sporting, has been familiarized by the English into Jackall.

The better sort of women are scarcely ever seen, and when they are, their faces are so completely covered that no feature can be distinguished. The poorer women, indeed, are not so confined, for they go in troops to draw water for the place. I have seen the elder ones sitting and chatting at the well, and spinning the coarse cotton of the country, while the young girls filled the skin which contains the water, and which they all carry on their backs into the town. They do not wear shoes; their dress consists of a very ample shirt, a pair of loose trowsers, and the veil which goes over all. Their appearance is most doleful; though I have still noticed a pretty face through all the filth of their attire. The colour of their clothes is originally brown, but when they become too dirty to be worn under that hue, they are sent to the dyer, who is supposed to clean them by superinducing a dark-blue or black tint. In almost every situation they might be considered as the attendants on a burial; but in a real case of death there are professional mourners, who are hired to see proper respect paid to the deceased, by keeping up the cries of etiquette to his memory.

Among the superstitions in Persia, that which depends on the crowing of a cock, is not the least remarkable. If the cock crows at a proper hour, they esteem it a good omen; if at an improper season, they kill him. I am told that the favourable hours are at nine, both in the morning and in the evening, at noon and at midnight.

But the lion, in the popular belief of Persia, has a discernment much more important to the interests of mankind. A fellow told me with the gravest face, that a lion of their own country would never hurt a Sheyah, (the sect of the Mahomedan religion which follows Ali, and which is established in Persia,) but would always devour a Sunni, (who recognises before Ali the three first caliphs.) On meeting a lion, you have only therefore to say, “Ya Ali,” and the beast will walk by you with great respect; but should you either from zeal or the forgetfulness of terror, exclaim “Ya Omar! Oh Omar!” he will spring upon you instantly.

III. Animals of the Dashtistan. About twenty-five years ago, in the time of Sheik Nasr, who possessed both Bushire and the island of Bahrein, and who consequently was enabled to improve the native breed of Persia, by bringing over the Nedj stallion, the Dashtistan became celebrated for a horse of strength and bottom. But the original breed of Persia, that which is now restored, is a tall, lank, ill-formed, and generally vicious animal; useful indeed for hard work, but unpleasant to ride compared with the elegant action and docility of the Arab. There is another race of the Turcoman breed, (such as are seen at Smyrna, and through all Asia Minor), a short, thick, round-necked, and strong-leg’d horse, short quartered, and inclined behind. There is also a fine breed produced by the Turcoman mare and the Nedj stallion. At two different times, large lots of horses were offered to us for sale: the first, by the people of the Shiraz officer, who asked immense prices, and when refused, departed in apparent ill-humour, but generally returned and took the reduced sum which was offered. In this way also we purchased a lot of forty horses, principally of the Turcoman breed, which had been destined for the Indian market, and for which an average price of three hundred and twenty piastres for each horse had been asked at Bushire, but which at the end of the month were sold to us for two hundred and fifty. The distinct and characteristic value of the horses of the country, was exemplified in a present of two, which the Envoy received from the Sheik of Bushire. One was a beautiful Arab colt, of the sweetest temper I ever knew in a horse, frisking about like a lamb, and yet so docile, that though now for the first time mounted, he seemed to have been long used to the bit, a sure proof in the estimation of the country of the excellence of his breed. The other was a Persian colt of the most stubborn and vicious nature; to the astonishment and admiration however of the Persians, the Envoy’s Yorkshire groom by mere dint of whip and spur, subdued the creature and rendered him fit to ride: a triumph which established the groom’s reputation readily, among a people peculiarly alive to the superiority of their own horsemanship. A horse more than ordinarily vicious was tamed in a singular manner by the people of the country. He was turned out loose (muzzled indeed in his mouth, where his ferociousness was most formidable) to await in an enclosure the attack of two horses, whose mouths and legs at full liberty were immediately directed against him. The success was as singular as the experiment; and the violence of the discipline which he endured, subdued the nature of the beast, and rendered him the quietest of his kind. The horses are fastened in the stables by their fore legs, and pinioned by a rope from the hind leg to stakes at about six feet distant behind, so that although the animals are well inclined to quarrel, and are only four or five feet asunder, they can scarcely in this position succeed in hurting each other: frequently however they do get loose, and then most furious battles ensue. I have often admired the courage and dexterity with which the Persian Jelowdars or grooms throw themselves into the thickest engagement of angry horses; and, in defiance of the kicks and bites around them, contrive to separate them.

The Resident’s stud consists of about twenty horses, mules, and asses; eight of the horses belong to the East India Company, and are principally employed in carrying choppers or couriers to Shiraz. These are obliged however to be renewed very frequently, because one such journey generally destroys the animal that performs it; so difficult are the passes of the mountains, and so unmerciful are the riders.

They have in Persia a very large and ferocious dog, called the kofla dog, from his being the watchful and faithful companion of the kofla or caravan. Each muleteer has his dog, and so correct is the animal’s knowledge of the mules that belong to his master, that he will discover those that have strayed, and will bring them back to their associates; and on the other hand, when at night the whole caravan stops, and the mules are parcelled in square lots, the guardian dog will permit no strange mule to join the party under his charge, or to encroach upon their ground. His strength and his ferocity are equal to his intelligence and watchfulness.

We chased one day a large white fox. They prey about the open country round Bushire in great numbers, for the natives do not destroy them with all the zeal of Englishmen. The wild animals of the Dashtistan are the wolf, the hyæna, the fox, the porcupine, the mangousti, the antelope, the wild boar, the jerboa, and sometimes the wild goat. The mountains of the Dashtistan have also the lion, and he has been known to descend into the plain. On the 12th December, Captain Davis, of the Sapphire, shot two cormorants out of a flock that were squatted on a tree. Partridges also have been seen to settle in the same situation. The hawks, which are used in hunting, are the cherk, the balban, and the shahein.

We set off on the 29th of November, before sun-rise, to hunt with hawks. The freshness, or rather the coldness of the morning, was quite revivifying. We were accompanied by an old and keen sportsman, who had long been renowned in the plains of Bushire for his expertness in training a hawk, and his perseverance in hunting the hoobara or bustard. The old Reis, the name by which he was known, was one of the most picturesque figures on horseback that I ever saw. He was rather tall, with a neck very long, and a beard very grey. His body, either through age or the long use of a favourite position on horseback, inclined forwards till it made an angle of 45° with his thighs, which run nearly parallel to the horse’s back; and his beard projected so much from his lank neck, that it completed the amusement of the profile. On his right wrist, which was covered by large gloves, his hawk was perched. The bird is always kept hood-winked, till the game be near. On our way we were joined by Hassan Khan, the Governor of Dasti, who also carried a hawk, and who was attended by about fifteen men with spears, the kaleoons, or water pipes, &c. We proceeded to Halila, where we commenced our hunt. A hoobara started almost under the foot of my horse; as the bird flew, a hawk was unhooded that he might mark the direction, and was loosed only when it settled. But the sport was unsuccessful in two or three attempts; in fact, when the hawk has had one flight, and has missed his prey, he should be fed with the blood of a pigeon, and then hood-winked, and not permitted to fly again in that day’s sport. As soon as the hawk has taken his flight, the sportsmen remain quiet till they can see that their bird has seized his prey, when they ride up and disengage them.

The Jerboa. On the 1st Dec. we caught some jerboas; and I had an opportunity of delineating and observing with some nicety all their different properties. The description of this animal has been given so minutely by Sonnini, and, with the controversy on the subject, has occupied indeed so very long a chapter of one of his volumes, that it would be superfluous to go over again the same tedious ground. As there are, however, some little exceptions in the jerboa which I saw at Bushire, I shall endeavour to point them out. In the first place, that gradation from the bird to the quadruped, which Sonnini traced in the hopping motion of the jerboa, did not strike me with the same degree of conviction. When unpursued the animal certainly hops, though this admission does not imply that he cannot walk without hopping. But when he is escaping from any alarm, he may almost be said to lay himself flat on the surface of the ground from the immense tension of his hind legs, and literally to run ventre à terre. Yet as every observer will feel that there are shades by which the works of creation gradually resolve into each other, and which, by a slow operation, connect the zoophyte with the animated world, and the bird with the quadruped, the jerboa may still serve as one of the first and most perceptible gradations between two kingdoms of nature; but kangaroos, a larger and nobler specimen, would illustrate the connection as correctly.

On the specific description of the animal I agree with Sonnini’s account of the Egyptian jerboas, except that, in two which I examined, I could not find the spur or the small rudiment of a fourth toe on the heel of the hinder foot; on the existence of which depends essentially the resemblance which he has discovered between the jerboa and the alagtaga of Tartary. But as the jerboa of Hasselquist, of Bruce, and of Sonnini all seem to differ from each other, and from those which I examined, in some minute circumstance, it is reasonable to conclude, less that there is any incorrectness in the descriptions, than that there is an essential variety in the animals. The jerboas in the deserts before us at Bushire, do not live in troops, as those of Egypt, according to Sonnini; each has his hole to which he retires with the utmost precipitation; nor is it possible to take him by surprise in the day, as I learn from Sir Harford Jones, who has had ample opportunities of examining the history of the jerboas; and therefore the circumstance, which Bruce mentions, of his Arabs having knocked them down with sticks, extends probably to no general inference. Nor can I think that Sonnini is correct in supposing that the animal is fond of light. Those which I kept in a cage remained huddled together under some cotton during the day, but in the night made such a scratching, that I was obliged to send them out of the room. Besides, one of the most common methods of catching them is by the glare of a lanthorn, which seems to deprive them of the power of moving, and subjects them quietly to the hand of the man who bears the light. There is another and an easy way of catching them, by pouring water down one of the apertures of their retreat; they immediately jump out. We hunted several with spaniels, but, although surrounded on all sides, they escaped with the greatest facility: when very closely pressed, they have a most dextrous method of springing to an amazing height over the heads of their pursuers; and, making two or three somersets in the air, they come down again in all safety on their hinder legs, many yards from the spot of their ascent. In this leap they probably use their diminutive paws. Even a greyhound stands no chance with them; for as soon as he comes near, they take to the somersets, and the dog is completely thrown out. Their flesh is reckoned very fine, as the people here who eat them assure me. As the animal is very sensible of cold, and formed so delicately and apparently so little prepared to resist frosts and snows, I cannot think, though Sonnini seems to imply it, that it is found in very northern climates. Rats and hares indeed are found in the coldest as well as in the warmest parts of the world; but nature has provided them with a clothing more appropriate to the change.