compared with those of the Arab tribes west of the Tigris. Their tents
and furnishings are likewise extremely poor, and they live poorly,
many of them only able to procure acorn flour for bread, and this
though they grow a great deal of grain, and every yard of land is
cultivated if water is procurable.
The hospitality which those two travellers mention as a feature of the
character of the more southerly Bakhtiaris does not exist among these
people. They have, in fact, little to be hospitable with. They all
speak of better days in the times of their fathers, when they had
brood mares and horses to ride, much pastoral wealth and plenty of
_roghan_, and when their women could wear jewels and strings of coins.
On this point I believe them, though there may possibly be
exaggeration in Taimur Khan's statements. Persia has undoubtedly
tightened her grip upon them, and she is sucking their life-blood out
of them. This becomes very evident now that we have reached a point
where the government of Burujird comes in, with the infinite
unrighteousness of Persian provincial governors. It is not the tribute
fixed by the Amin-es-Sultan which these Khans complain of, but the
rapacious exactions of the local governors.
There is a "blood feud" between Taimur Khan and Aslam Khan, the chief
of the Zalaki tribe, on whose territory we shall enter to-day. A
nephew of Taimur killed a relation of Aslam, and afterwards Taimur
sheltered him from legitimate vengeance. Just now the feud is very
active, and cattle-lifting and other reprisals are going on. "Blood
feuds" are of three degrees, according to the nature of the offence.
In the first a man of the one tribe can kill a man of the other
wherever he finds him. In the second he harries his cattle and goods.
In the third he simply "boycotts" him and refuses him a passage
through his territory. The Bakhtiaris have often been called
"bloodthirsty." I doubt whether they are so, though life is of little
account, and they are reckless about spilling blood.
They have a great deal of family devotion, which in lesser degree
extends to the members of their tribe, and a Bakhtiari often spares
the life of a man who has aggrieved him owing to his fear of creating
a blood feud, which must be transmitted from father to son, and which
must affect the whole tribe. As a deterrent from acts of violence it
acts powerfully, and may account for the singular bloodlessness of
some of the tribal fights. Few men, unless carried away by a whirlwind
of fury, care to involve a tribe in the far-reaching consequences
alluded to, and bad as the custom of blood feuds is, I think there can
be no doubt that it acts as a curb upon the passions of these wild
tribesmen. "There is blood between us and them," is a phrase often
heard.
Punishments are simple and deterrent, well suited to a simple people.
When a homicide is captured he is handed over to the relatives of the
slain man, who may kill him, banish him, fine him, or pardon him. In
point of fact, "blood-money" is paid to the family of the deceased
person, and to save his life from their vengeance a homicide
frequently becomes a mendicant on the other side of the mountains till
he can gain the required sum. Moslem charity responds freely to a
claim for alms to wipe out a blood stain. The Ilkhani has a right to
fine a homicide. "Blood for blood" is a maxim very early inculcated.
The present feud between the Magawe and the Zalaki tribes is of the
first degree. It is undoubtedly a part of the truly Oriental policy of
Persia to foment tribal quarrels, and keep them going, with the object
of weakening the power of the clans, which, though less so than
formerly, is a standing menace to the central government.
On reaching camp after this visit I found a greater crowd than ever,
and as "divers of them came from far," I tried to help them till nine
o'clock, and as Aziz had returned the crowding was not so severe. He
said, "You're very tired, send these people away, you've done enough."
I answered that one had never done enough so long as one could do
more, and he made a remark which led me to ask him if he thought a
_Kafir_ could reach Paradise? He answered "Oh no!" very hastily, but
after a moment's thought said, "I don't know, God knows, _He doesn't
think as we do_, He may be more merciful than we think. If Kafirs fear
God they may have some Paradise to themselves, we don't know."
I. L. B.
LETTER XVIII (_Continued_)[5]
CAMP KALA KUH, _July 16_.
The call to "Boot and Saddle" was at three, and I was nearly too tired
to pack in the sultry morning air. The heat is overpowering. Khaja
Taimur no doubt had reasons for a difficulty in providing guides,
which caused delay. The track lay through pretty country, with
abounding herbage, to the village and _imamzada_ of Makhedi. There the
guide said he dared not go any farther for fear of being killed, and
after some time another was procured. During this delay a crowd of
handsome but hardship-aged women gathered round me, many of them
touching the handkerchiefs on their heads and then tapping the palms
of their hands, a significant sign, which throughout Persia, being
interpreted, means, "Give me some money."
The Agha is in the habit of gathering the little girls about him and
giving them _krans_ as from his own children, a most popular
proceeding usually; but here the people were not friendly, and very
suspicious. Even the men asked me clamorously, "Why does he give them
money? It's poisoned, it's cursed, it's to make them blind." However,
avarice prevailed over fear. The people rarely see money, and it is
not used as a medium of exchange, but they value it highly for paying
the tribute and as ornaments for the women. Barter is the custom, and
with regard to "tradesmen," whether in camps or villages, it is usual
for each family to pay so much grain annually to the blacksmith, the
carpenter, the shoemaker--_i.e._ the man who makes compressed rag or
leather soles for _ghevas_ and unites the cotton webbing ("upper") to
the sole--and the _hammam_ keeper, in the rare cases where there is
one. They were cutting wheat on July 12 there at an altitude of 7000
feet. Where there are only camps the oxen tread it out at once on the
hard soil of the fields, but where there is a village the sheaves are
brought in on donkeys' backs to a house roof of sun-dried clay, and
are there trodden out, the roofs being usually accessible from the
slope above.
We descended to a deep ford, crossed the river Ab-i-Baznoi (locally
known as Kakulistan, or "the curl," from its singular windings), there
about sixty feet wide, with clear rapid water of a sky-blue tint, very
strong, and up to the guide's waist, and entered a steep-sided stony
valley, where the heat was simply sickening. There the second guide
left us, saying he should be killed if he went any farther, but
another was willing to succeed him. After a steep ascent we emerged on
a broad rolling upland valley, deeply gashed by a stream, with the
grand range of the Kala Kuh on the south side, and low bare hills on
the north. It is now populous, the valley and hillsides are spotted
with large camps, and the question at once arose, "Hostile or
Friendly?"
I was riding as usual with Mirza behind me, when a man with a gun
rushed frantically towards me from an adjacent camp, waving his gun
and shouting, "Who are you? Why are you in our country? You're friends
of Khaja Taimur, you've given him presents, we'll rob you"! With
these and many similar words he pursued us, and men started up as by
magic, with long guns, running alongside, the low spurs became covered
with people in no time, and there was much signalling from hill to
hill, "A-hoy-hoy-hoy-hoy," and sending of messengers. Mirza pacified
them by saying that we are friends of Isfandyar Khan, and that I have
presents for Aslam Khan, their chief; but soon the shout of
"Feringhis" was raised, and from group to group along the knolls
swelled the cry of "Feringhis! Feringhis!" mixed with a few shouts of
_Kafir_; but without actual molestation we reached a steep and
uncomfortable camping-ground, Padshah-i-Zalaki, at an altitude of 7800
feet, with an extensive view of the broad green valley.
Before we halted Aslam Khan, a very fine-looking man, and others met
us, and performed feats of horsemanship, wheeling their horses in
small circles at a gallop, and firing pantomimically over their left
shoulders and right flanks. The Sahib came in later, so that our party
was a tolerably strong one.
The first thing the people did was to crowd into the shelter-tent and
lie down, staring fixedly, a thing which never happened before, and
groups steadily occupied the tops of the adjacent spurs. After my tent
was pitched the people assembled round it in such numbers, ostensibly
desiring medicine, that the Khan sent two _tufangchis_ to keep order
among them, and Karim, whose arm is now well, was added as a
protection. The Agha ordered that the people should sit in rows at the
sides and take their turn, one at a time, to come into the verandah,
but no sooner were he and Aziz Khan out of sight than they began to
crowd, to shout, and to become unmanageable, scuffling and pushing,
the _tufangchis_ pretending to beat them with the barrels of their
guns, but really encouraging them, and at length going away, saying
they could not manage them. Karim begged me to stop giving medicine,
for he was overpowered, and if he opposed them any more there would be
a fight. They had said that if he "spoke another word they would kill
him." They were perfectly good-humoured all the time, but acted like
complete savages, getting under the _flys_, tugging at the tent ropes,
and trying to pull my blankets off the bed, etc. At last the hindmost
gave a sudden push, sending the foremost tumbling into the tent and
over me, upsetting a large open packet of sulphate of zinc, just
arrived from Julfa, which was on my lap.
I left the tent to avoid further mischief, but was nearly suffocated
by their crowding and tugging my dress, shouting "_Hak[=i]m!
Hak[=i]m!_" The Sahib, who came to the rescue, and urged them in
Persian to depart, was quite powerless. In the midst of the confusion
the Khan's wives and daughter came to visit me, but I could only show
them the crowd and walk, followed by it, in the opposite direction
from the tent, till I met the Agha, whose presence restored order.
That night nearly all Hadji's _juls_ or mule blankets and a donkey
were stolen.
The Zalakis are a large and powerful tribe, predatory by habit and
tradition. Aslam Khan himself directed certain thefts from which we
suffered, and quoted a passage from the Koran not only to extenuate
but to warrant depredations on the goods of "infidels."
Sunday was spent in the hubbub of a crowd. I was suffering somewhat
from a fall, and yet more from the fatigues of Kalahoma, and longed
for rest, but the temperature of the tent when closed was 106 deg., and
when open the people crowded at the entrance, ostensibly for medicine,
but many from a pardonable and scarcely disguised curiosity to see the
"Feringhi _Hak[=i]m_," and hear her speak.
In the afternoon, with Mirza and Karim as a guard, I went somewhat
reluctantly to the Khan's camp to return the abortive visit of the
ladies. This camp consists of a number of black tents arranged in a
circle, the Khan's tents only distinguishable from the rest by their
larger size. Mares, dogs, sheep, goats, and fireholes were in the
centre, and some good-looking horses were tethered outside.
The Khan's mother, a fine, buxom, but coarse-looking woman, met me,
and took me to an open tent, fully forty feet long, the back of which
was banked up by handsome saddle-bags. Bolsters and rugs were laid in
the middle, on which the four legitimate wives and several inferior
ones, with a quantity of babies and children crawling about them, were
seated. Among them was a very handsome Jewish-looking girl of
eighteen, the Khan's daughter, pleasing in expression and graceful in
manner. She is married to a son of Taimur Khan, but he does not care
for her, and has practically discarded her, which adds insult to the
"blood feud" previously existing.
After I entered the tent the whole camp population, male and female,
crowded in, pressing upon us with clamour indescribable. The Khan's
mother slapped the wives if they attempted to speak and conducted
herself like a ruling virago, occasionally shrieking at the crowd,
while a _tufangchi_ with a heavy stick belaboured all within his
reach, and those not belaboured yelled with laughter.
The senior lady beckoned Mirza to lean towards her, and told him in a
whisper that her handsome granddaughter is hated and despised by her
husband, and has been sent back with a baby a year old, he having
taken another wife, and that she wanted me to give her a "love
philtre" that would answer the double purpose of giving her back his
love and making her rival hateful in his eyes. During this whispered
conference as many as could reach leant close to the speakers, like
the "savages" that they are. I replied that I knew of no such
philtres, that if the girl's beauty and sweetness could not retain her
husband's love there was no remedy. She said she knew I had them, and
that I kept them, as well as potions for making favourite wives ugly
and odious to their husbands, in a leather box with a gold key! Then
many headaches and sore eyes were brought, and a _samovar_ and tea,
and I distributed presents in a Babel in which anything but the most
staccato style of conversation was impossible. When I left the crowd
surged after me, and a sharp stone was thrown, which cut through my
cloak.
Later, Aslam Khan, his brothers, and the usual train of retainers
called. He is a very fine-looking man, six feet high, with a most
sinister expression, and a look at times which inspired me with the
deepest distrust of him. His robber tribe numbers 3500 souls, and he
says that he can bring 540 armed horsemen into the field. He too asked
for medicine for headache. Not only is there a blood feud between him
and Khaja Taimur, but between him and Mirab Khan, through whose valley
we must pass. In the evening the Khan's mother returned with several
women, bent on getting the "love philtre." At night Hadji, who was
watching, said that men were prowling round the tents at all hours,
and a few things were taken.
On Monday morning early all was ready, for the three caravans from
that day were to march together, and I was sitting on my horse talking
with the Sahib, waiting for the Agha to return from the Khan's camp,
when he rushed down the slope exclaiming, "There's mischief!" and I
crossed the stream and watched it. About twenty men with loaded sticks
had surrounded Mujid, and were beating him and finally got him down.
I leapt back to my own camp, where Hassan and Karim were taking a
parting smoke, and ordered them to the rescue. The soldier rushed into
the _melee_, armed with only a cane, which was broken at once, and the
Bakhtiaris got him by his thick hair, and all but forced him down; but
he fought like a bulldog, and so did Hassan, who was unarmed and got
two bad cuts. Dashed too into the fray Hadji Hussein, who fought like
a bull, followed by his muleteers and by Abbas Ali, who, being early
knocked down, hung on to a man's arm with his teeth. The Sahib, who
was endeavouring to make peace, was untouched, possibly because of his
lineage and faith, and he yelled to Mirza (who in a fight is of no
account) to run for the Agha, whose presence is worth fifty men.
Meanwhile a number of Zalakis, armed, two with guns and the rest with
loaded sticks, crowded round me, using menacing gestures and calling
me a _Kafir_, on which I took my revolver out of the holster, and very
slowly examined the chambers, though I knew well that all were loaded.
This had an excellent effect. They fell back, and were just dispersing
when over the crest of the hill cantered Aziz Khan, followed by the
Agha, who, galloping down the slope, fired a revolver twice over the
head of a man who was running away, who, having stolen a sheep, and
being caught in the act by Mujid, had begun the fray. Aslam Khan
followed, and, the men say, gave the order to fire, but recalled it on
finding that one of his tribesmen had been the aggressor. I thought he
took the matter very coolly, and he almost immediately told Mirza to
ask me for a penknife!
After this we started, the orders being for the caravans to keep well
together, and if we were absolutely attacked to "fire." After
ascending a spur of the Kala Kuh we left the track for an Ilyat camp
on a steep hill among oaks and pears, where I had promised to see a
young creature very ill of fever.
Among the trees was a small booth of four poles, roofed with celery
stalks, but without sides or ends, and in this, on a sheepskin, was a
heap out of which protruded two white wasted arms. I uncovered the
back of a head which turned slowly, and revealed, in a setting of
masses of heavy shining hair, the white face of a young girl, with
large brilliant eyes and very beautiful teeth. Her pulse was
fluttering feebly, and I told the crowd that death was very near, for
fear they should think I had poisoned her with the few drops of
stimulant that she was able to swallow. Even here the death penalty
sometimes follows the joy of maternity. She died in the evening, and
now nothing remains of the camp but a heap of ashes, for these people
always at once leave the camping-ground where a death has occurred.
Meanwhile the Agha was making friends with the people, and giving
_krans_ to the children, as is his habit. Scarcely had we left when he
found that he had been robbed of a fine pair of binocular glasses,
almost a necessity under the circumstances. English rifles,
binoculars, and watches are all coveted by the Bakhtiaris. Aziz Khan
became very grave, and full of dismal prophecies regarding the
remainder of the journey.
After this divergence the scenery was magnificent. The Kala Kuh range
is certainly finer than the Zard Kuh. It is more broken up into peaks
of definite outline, and is more deeply cut by gorges, many of them
the beds of torrents, densely wooded. In fact it is less of a _range_
and more of a _group_. The route lay among huge steep mountains of
naked rock, cut up by narrow, deep, and gigantic clefts, from whose
depths rise spires of rock and stupendous, almost perpendicular
cliffs. Green torrents flecked with foam boom through the shadows, or
flash in the sunlight, margined wherever it is possible by walnuts,
oaks, lilacs, roses, the _Lastrea dilatata_, and an entanglement of
greenery revelling in spray.
A steep zigzag descent through oak and pear trees brought us to the
vigorous torrent Ab-i-Sefid (white water), one of many of the same
name, crossed by a natural bridge of shelving rock, slippery from much
use. One of the Arabs so nearly fell on this that I dismounted, and
just as I did so Abbas Ali's mule fell on his side, and _Screw_
following did the same, breaking several things in the holster.
After crossing a deep ravine Abbas Ali sprang back down the steep to
it, and the Sahib, who was behind, also ran down with three men to
what was evidently a disaster. Mirza's mule had fallen over twenty
feet, rolling over him three times with its load, hurting his knee
badly. The Sahib said he never saw so narrow an escape from a broken
neck. The loss of a bottle containing a quart of milk was the chief
damage. A little farther up three men were tugging _Hak[=i]m_ up to
the track by the tail. It was a very steep ascent by stony broken
zigzags and ledges to the fairly level top of a spur of the Kala Kuh
range, with a high battlemented hill behind, at the back of which
dwell robber hordes, and many Seyyids, who pay no tribute, and are
generally feared.
At this open, breezy height of 9200 feet the camps have been pitched
for three days, and of the many camping-grounds which we have hitherto
occupied I like it the best, so lofty is it, so lonely, so mysterious
and unexplored. It has a glorious view of tremendous wooded ravines,
down which green waters glide or tumble, of small lawn-like plateaux
among woods, and of green peaks in the foreground, and on the other
side of the narrow, sinuous valley, several thousand feet below,
there is a confused mass of mountains, among which the snow-slashed
southern faces of the peaks of the Zard Kuh and the grand bulk of a
mountain of the Faidun range, are the most prominent.
Five thousand feet below, reached by a remarkable track, is Basnoi, a
lonely depth, with successive terraces of figs, pomegranates, and
walnuts, dense woods, and a luxuriant undergrowth of long grass and
ferns. Among them are the remains of an ancient road of good width and
construction, and of a very fine bridge of small blocks of
carefully-dressed stone, with three arches, now ruined, with fine
piers and stone abutments, the centre arch having a span of sixty
feet. The roadway of the bridge is gone, and a crazy wicker framework
is suspended in its place. The Bakhtiaris attribute these relics of an
extinct civilisation to Shapur, one of the three kings of that name
who reigned in the third and fourth centuries. All these green waters
fall into the Ab-i-Diz.
Before sunset heads of men and barrels of guns were seen over the
rocky cliff behind us. We had been warned against the outlaw tribes of
that region, and had been told that they were preparing to rob the
camp that night with thirty men, and had declared that if they failed
they would dog us till they succeeded. This news was brought by Aslam
Khan's brother in the afternoon. I asked Aziz with how much I should
reach Burujird, and he answered, "It's well if you take your life
there."
This and a whole crop of other rumours, magnified as they passed from
man to man, produced a novel excitement in the lonely camps. Hadji
buried his money, of which he had a large sum, and lay down upon it.
Rifles and revolvers were cleaned and loaded, swords and knives
sharpened, voices were loud and ceaseless, and those who were slightly
hurt in the morning's fray recounted their adventures over and over
again. All dispositions for safety were carefully made before night.
Hassan, who has a horse, and large property in good clothes, wanted a
revolver, but was wisely refused, on the ground that to arm
undisciplined men indiscriminately would be to run a great risk of
being ourselves shot in any confusion. There were then four men with
rifles, five with revolvers, and Aslam Khan's brother and two
_tufangchis_ with guns.
About eight the Bakhtiari signal-call was several times repeated, and
I wondered if it were foe or friend, till Aziz's answering signal rang
out loud and clear, announcing that it was "friends of Isfandyar
Khan." Shortly I heard, "the plot thickens," and the "friends" turned
out to be another brother of Aslam Khan, with four _tufangchis_ and a
promise of eight more, who never arrived. According to these men
reliable information had been received that Khaja Taimur, our friend
of Kalahoma, was sending forty men to rob us on Aslam Khan's territory
in order to get him into trouble.
This arrival increased the excitement among the men, who piled
tamarisk and the gum tragacanth bush on the fires most recklessly, the
wild, hooded _tufangchis_ and their long guns being picturesque in the
firelight. I am all but positively sure that the rumour was invented
by Aslam Khan, in order to show his vigilant care of guests, and
secure from their gratitude the much-coveted possession of an English
rifle. Hadji came to my tent, telling me "not to be the least afraid,
for they would not harm a lady." The Agha has a resource for every
emergency, the Sahib is cool and brave, and besides that, I strongly
suspected the whole thing to be a ruse of Aslam Khan, whom I distrust
thoroughly. At all events I was asleep very early, and was only
disturbed twice by Aziz calling to know if my servants were watching,
and was only awakened at five by the Sahib and the Agha going past my
tent, giving orders that any stranger approaching the camp was to be
warned off, and was to be fired upon if he disregarded the warning.