with my appliances, very grudgingly, I admit. The sweet animal was
indeed suffering, and the swelling was much increased. A number of men
were standing round her, and when I told Aziz to remove the clot from
the wound, they insisted that she would bleed to death, and so the
pros and cons went on till Aziz said, "The _Khanum_ shall do it, these
Feringhi _Hak[=i]ms_ know everything." To be regarded as a _Hak[=i]m_
on the slenderest possible foundation is distressing, but to be
regarded as a "vet" without any foundation at all is far worse.
However, the clot was removed, and though the wound was three inches
long there was still no relief, and Aziz said solemnly, "Now do what
you think best." Very gradual pressure at the back of the leg brought
out a black solid mass weighing fully a pound. "God is great!"
exclaimed the bystanders. "May God forgive your sins!" cried Aziz, and
fell at my feet with a genuine impulse of gratitude. He insists that
"a pound of flesh" came out of the swelling. The wound is now syringed
every few hours, and Aziz is learning how to do this, and to dress it.
The mare can both eat and sleep, and will soon be well.
This evening Aziz said that fifteen _tumans_ would be the charge for
curing his mare, and that, he says, is my present to him. He told me
he wanted me to consider something very thoroughly, and not to answer
hastily. He said, "We're a poor people, we have no money, but we have
plenty of food. We have women who take out bullets, but in all our
nation there is no _Hak[=i]m_ who knows the wisdom of the Feringhis.
Your medicines are good, and have healed many of our people, and
though a _Kafir_ we like you well and will do your bidding. The Agha
speaks of sending a _Hak[=i]m_ among us next year, but you are here,
and though you are old you can ride, and eat our food, and you love
our people. You have your tent, Isfandyar Khan will give you a horse
of pure pedigree, dwell among us till you are very old, and be our
_Hak[=i]m_, and teach us the wisdom of the Feringhis." Then, as if a
sudden thought had struck him, he added, "And you can cure mules and
mares, and get much money, and when you go back to Feringhistan you'll
be very rich."
In nearly every camp I have an evening "gossip" with the guides and
others of the tribesmen, and, in the absence of news from the larger
world, have become intensely interested in Bakhtiari life as it is
pictured for me in their simple narratives of recent forays, of
growing tribal feuds and their causes, of blood feuds, and of bloody
fights, arising out of trivial disputes regarding camping-grounds,
right of pasture, right to a wounded bird, and things more trivial
still. They are savages at heart. They take a pride in bloodshed,
though they say they are tired of it and would like to live at peace,
and there would be more killing than there is were it not for the
aversion which some of them feel to the creation of a blood feud. When
they do fight, "the life of a man is as the life of a sheep," as the
Persian proverb runs. Mirza says that among themselves their talk is
chiefly of guns and fighting. The affairs of the mountains are very
interesting, and so is the keen antagonism between the adherents of
the Ilkani and those of Isfandyar Khan.
Sometimes the conversation takes a religious turn. I think I wronged
Aziz Khan in an earlier letter. He is in his way much more religious
than I thought him. A day or two ago I was asking him his beliefs
regarding a future state, which he explained at much length, and which
involve progressive beatitudes of the spirit through a course of one
hundred years. He laid down times and seasons very definitely, and was
obviously in earnest, when two Magawe men who were standing by broke
in indignantly, saying, "Aziz Khan, how dare you speak thus? These
things belong to God, the Judge, He knows, we don't--we see the spirit
fly away to judgment and we know no more. God is great, He alone
knows."
Apparently they have no idea generally of a future except that the
spirit goes either to heaven or hell, according to its works in the
flesh. Some say that they are told that there is an intermediate place
called _Barjakh_, known as the place of evil spirits, in which those
who have died in sin undergo a probation with the possibility of
beneficent results.
On asking what is meant by sin the replies all have the same
tendency,--cowardice, breaches of the seventh commandment (which,
however, seem to be so rare as scarcely to be taken into account,
possibly because of the death penalty attaching to them), disobedience
to a chief when he calls on them to go to war, fraternising with
Sunnis, who are "accursed," betraying to an enemy a man of their own
tribe, and compassing the death of another by poison or evil
machinations.
On being asked what deeds are good, bravery is put first, readiness to
take up a tribal quarrel, charity, i.e. kindness to the poor, undying
hatred to the Caliph Omar, shown by ostracising the Sunnis, hatred of
_Kafirs_, and pilgrimages, especially to Mecca.
Death in battle ensures an immediate entrance into heaven, and this is
regarded as such a cause of rejoicing that not only is the _chapi_ or
national dance performed at a fighting man's grave, but if his death
at a distance has been lawful, _i.e._ if he has been killed in
fighting, they put up a rude temporary cenotaph with his gun, cap,
knife, pipe, and other things about it, and dance, sing, and rejoice.
Otherwise their burial rites are simple. The corpse is washed seven
times in water, certain Arabic formulas for the repose of the soul are
recited, and the body, clothed and wrapped in a winding-sheet, is
carried by four men to the burying-place on a bier extemporised out of
tent-poles, and is buried in a shallow grave. It is not customary now
to rejoice at the graves of women or old men, unless the latter have
been distinguished warriors.
So far as I can learn, even in the case of the deaths of fighting men,
when the _chapi_ is danced at the grave, the women keep up the
ordinary ceremonial of mourning, which is very striking. They howl and
wail, beating their breasts rhythmically, keeping time with their
feet, tearing their hair and gashing their faces with sharp flints,
cutting off also their long locks and trampling upon them with piteous
cries. This last bitter token of mourning is confined to the deaths of
a husband and a first-born son, and the locks so ruthlessly treated
are afterwards attached to the tombstone.
Mourning for a husband, child, or parent lasts a year, and the
anniversary of the death is kept with the same ceremonies which marked
the beginning of the period of mourning. In the case of a great man
who has died fighting, the women of his tribe wail and beat their
breasts on this anniversary for many subsequent years.
Nothing is buried with the corpse, and nothing is placed on the grave,
but it is the universal custom to put a stone at the head of the body,
which is always buried facing Mecca-wards. To this position they
attach great importance, and they covet my compass because it would
enable them at any point to find the position of the Kiblah. A comb or
distaff rudely carved on a woman's headstone, and the implements of
war or hunting on that of a man, are common, and few burial-places are
without one or more of the uncouth stone lions to which frequent
reference has been made.
The graveyards are very numerous, and are usually on small elevations
by the roadside, so that passers-by, if they be Hadjis, may pray for
the repose of the soul. It must be understood that prayer consists in
the repetition of certain formulas in Arabic, which very few if any
of these people understand.[9]
As to the great matter of their religion, on which I have taken
infinite trouble to gain information, I can come to no satisfactory
conclusion. I think that they have very little, and that what they
have consists in a fusion of some of the tenets of Islam with a few
relics of a nature worship, not less rude than that of the Ainos of
Yezo and other aboriginal tribes.
They are Shiahs, that is, they hate the Sunnis, and though the belief
in Persia that they compel any one entering their country to swear
eternal hatred to Omar is not absolutely correct, this hate is an
essential part of their religion. They hold the unity of God, and that
Mohammed was His prophet; but practically, though they are not Ali
Ilahis, they place Ali on as high a pedestal as Mohammed. They are
utterly lax in observing the precepts of the Koran, even prayer at the
canonical hours is very rarely practised, and then chiefly by Seyyids
and Hadjis. It has been said that the women are devout, but I think
that this is a mistake. Many of them have said to me, "Women have no
religion, for women won't live again."
Those of the Khans who can read, and who have made pilgrimages to
Mecca, such as the Hadji Ilkhani, Khaja Taimur, and Mirab Khan,
observe the times of prayer and read the Koran, and when they are so
engaged they allow of no interruption, but these are remarkable
exceptions.
Pilgrimages and visits to _imamzadas_ are lightly undertaken, either
for the accumulation of merit, or to wash away the few misdeeds which
they regard as sin, or in the hope of gaining an advantage over an
enemy.
They regard certain stones, trees, hill-tops, and springs as "sacred,"
but it is difficult to define the very vague ideas which they attach
to them. I am inclined to think that they look on them as the abodes
of genii, always malignant, and requiring to be propitiated. In
passing such places they use a formula equivalent to "May God avert
evil," and it is common, as in Nubra and Ladak, to hang pieces of rag
on such trees and stones as offerings to the _genius loci_.
They regard certain places as possibly haunted by spirits, always
evil, and never those of the departed; but this can scarcely be termed
a belief, as it is lightly held, and quite uninfluential, except in
preventing them from passing such places alone in the darkness.
The opinions concerning God represent Him chiefly as a personification
of a fate, to which they must bow, and as a Judge, to whom, in some
mysterious way, they must account after death. Earthly justice appears
to them as a commodity to be bought and sold, as among the Persians,
or as it is among themselves, as severity solely, without a sentiment
of mercy; and I have asked them often if they think that anything will
be able to affect the judgment of the Judge of all, in case it should
go against them. Usually they reply in the negative, but a few say
that Ali, the Lieutenant of God, will ask for mercy for them, and that
he will not be refused.
Of God as a moral being I think they have little conception, and less
of the Creator as an object of love. Of holiness as an attribute of
God they have no idea. Their ejaculation, "God is good," has really no
meaning. Charity, under the term "goodness," they attribute to God.
But they have no notion of moral requirements on the part of the
Creator, or of sin as the breaking of any laws which He has laid down.
They concern themselves about the requirements of religion in this
life and about the future of the soul as little as is possible, and
they narrow salvation within the limits of the Shiah sect.
After Mohammed and Ali they speak of Moses, Abraham, and Jesus as
"Prophets," but of Moses as a lawgiver, and of Jesus as aught else but
a healer, they seem quite ignorant.
And so they pass away, generation after generation, ignorant of the
Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, of the love to God and
man which is alone the fulfilling of the law, and of the light which
He, who is the resurrection and the life, has shed upon the destiny of
the human spirit.
Generally I find them quite willing to talk on these subjects; but one
man said contemptuously, "What has a _Kafir_ to do with God?" The
women know nothing, and, except among the sons of the leading Khans,
there is no instruction in the Koran given to the children. If I have
interpreted their views correctly they must be among the most ignorant
of the races bound by the faith of Islam.
_Khuramabad, August 6._--Leaving the camp on Parwez, and skirting the
gravelly slopes on the north side of its ridge, a sudden dip over the
crest took us among great cliffs of conglomerate, with steep gravelly
slopes below, much covered with oaks growing out of scorched soil.
Grooves, slides, broken ledges, and shelving faces of rock have to be
descended. One part is awfully bad, and every available man and some
passing Bakhtiaris (who wanted to be paid in advance for their
services) went back to help the animals. The _charvadars_ shouted and
yelled, and the horses and some of the mules were taken by their heads
and tails, but though nearly every man had a fall, horses, asses,
mules, and a sheep which follows _Hak[=i]m_ got over that part safely.
It was a fine sight, thirty animals coming down, what looked from
below, a precipice, led by Hadji leading Cock o' the Walk, shaking his
tasselled head, and as full of pride and fire as usual, and the mules
looking wisely, choosing their way, and leaping dexterously upon and
among the rocks. It is not a route for laden animals, but personally,
as I had two men to help me, I did not find it so risky or severe as
the descent of the Gokun Pass.
Below these conglomerate precipices are steep and dangerous zigzags,
which I was obliged to ride down, and there we were not so fortunate,
for Hadji's big saddle-mule slipped, and being unable to recover
herself fell over the edge some hundred feet and was killed
instantaneously.
The descent of the southern face of Parwez, abrupt and dangerous most
of the way, is over 4300 feet. The track proceeds down the Holiwar
valley, brightened by a river of clear green water, descending from
Lake Irene. Having forded this, we camped on its left bank on a
gravelly platform at the edge of the oak woods which clothe the lower
spurs of the grand Kuh-i-Haft-Kuh, with a magnificent view of the gray
battlemented precipices of Parwez. The valley is beautiful, and acres
of withered flowers suggested what its brief spring loveliness must
be, but its altitude is only 5150 feet, and the mercury in the shade
was 104 deg., the radiation from the rock and gravel terrible, and the
sand-flies made rest impossible. At midnight the mercury stood at 90 deg.
There were no Bakhtiaris, but two or three patches of scorched-up
wheat, not worth cutting, evidenced their occasional presence. Among
these perished crops, revelling in blazing soil and air like the
breath of a furnace, grew the blue _centaurea_ and the scarlet poppy,
the world-wide attendants upon grain; and where other things were
burned, the familiar rose-coloured "sweet william," a white-fringed
_dianthus_, and a gigantic yellow mullein audaciously braved the heat.
No one slept that night because of the sand-flies and the need for
keeping a vigilant watch. Indeed, the tents were packed shortly after
sunset, and in a hot dawn we ascended to a considerable height above
the valley, and then for many miles followed a stream in a wooded
glen, where willows, planes, vines, rank grass, and a handsome yellow
pea grew luxuriantly, looped together continually by the fragile
_Clematis orientalis_. All that country would be pretty had it
moisture and "atmosphere." The hillsides are covered with oaks and the
_Paliurus aculeatus_ on their lower slopes, rising out of withered
flowers. All else is uncut sun-cured hay, and its pale uniform buff
colour is soft, and an improvement on the glare of bare gravel.
Delays, occasioned by the caravan being misled by the guide, took us
into the heat of the day, and before the narrow valley opened out into
the basin surrounded by wooded spurs of hills in which Khanabad
stands, it was noon. Men and animals suffered from the heat and length
of that march. In the middle of this basin there is a good deal of
cultivation, and opium, wheat, cotton, melons, grapes, and cucumbers
grow well. Rice has already succeeded wheat, and will be reaped in
November. Kalla Khanabad, the fort dwelling of Yahya Khan, with
terraces of poplars, mulberries, pomegranates, and apricots below it,
makes a good centre of a rather pretty view. Leaving it on the right
we turned up a narrow valley with a small stream and irrigation
channels, and close to a spring and some magnificent plane trees
camped for Sunday on a level piece of blazing ground where the mercury
stood at 106 deg. on both days. This spot was remarkable for some very
fine _eryngiums_ growing by the stream, with blossoms of a beautiful
"French blue," the size of a Seville orange.
The Khan's son, a most unprepossessing young man, called on me, and I
received him under the trees, a number of retainers armed with long
guns standing round the edge of the carpet. He was well dressed, but a
savage in speech and deportment. As to the dress of the Bakhtiaris,
the ordinary tribesmen wear coarse cotton shirts fastening at the
side, but generally unfastened, blue cotton trousers, each leg two
yards wide, loose at the bottom and drawn on a string at the top,
webbing shoes, worsted socks if any, woollen girdles with a Kashmir
pattern, and huge loose brown felt coats or cloaks with long sleeves,
costing from fifteen to twenty-five _krans_ each, and wearing for
three or four years. The Khans frequently have their _shulwars_ of
black silk, and wear the ordinary Persian full-skirted coat, usually
black, but "for best" one of fine blue or fawn cloth. All wear brown
or white felt skull-caps, and shave their heads for a width of five
inches from the brow to the nape of the neck, leaving long side-locks.
The girdle supplies the place of pockets, and in it are deposited
knives, the pipe, the tobacco-pouch, the flint and steel, and various
etceteras.
Every man carries a long smooth-bore gun slung from his left shoulder,
or a stout shillelagh, or a stick split and loaded at one end (the
split being secured with strong leather), or all these weapons of
offence and defence at once.
These very wide _shulwars_, much like the "divided garment," are not
convenient in rough walking, and on the march a piece of the hem on
the outer side is tucked into the girdle, producing at once the neat
effect of knickerbockers.
The men are very well made. I have never seen deformity or lameness
except from bullet wounds. They are not usually above the middle
height, though that is exceeded by the men of the Zalaki tribe. They
are darker than the Persians. As a general rule they have straight
noses, with very fully expanded nostrils, good mouths, thin lips,
straight or slightly curved eyebrows, dark gray or black eyes, hazel
in a few instances, deeply set, and usually rather close together,
well-developed foreheads, small ears, very small feet, and small hands
with tapering fingers. The limbs below the knee are remarkably
straight and well-developed, and the walk is always good.
It is not easy to say how the women are made, as their clothing gives
no indications of form. They are long-limbed, and walk with a firm,
even, elastic stride. They are frequently tall, and except when
secluded are rarely stout. Their hands and feet are small. Their
figures are spoilt (if they ever had any) by early maternity and hard
work. At twenty a woman looks past forty. Many, perhaps it is not an
exaggeration to say most, of them have narrowly escaped being
handsome. Fine eyes, straight noses, and well-formed mouths with thin
lips are the rule. The hair is always glossy and abundant, and the
teeth of both sexes are white, regular, and healthy-looking, though
toothache is a painfully common ailment.
The women's dress in the "higher classes" is much like that worn by
the ordinary Persian women, with the exception of what I have
elsewhere called "balloon trousers," but the hard-working tribesmen's
wives are clothed in loose blue cotton trousers drawn in at the
ankles, short open chemises, and short open jackets. A black or
coloured kerchief covers the head, the ends hanging down behind or in
front. They wear loose woollen shoes with leather soles. The dress is
not pretty or picturesque, and is apt to be dirty and ragged, but it
suits their lives and their hard work.
Both sexes stain the finger-nails and the palms of the hands with
henna, and all wear amulets or charms suspended round the neck, or
bound on the upper part of the arm. These consist of passages from the
Koran, which are written on parchment in very small characters, and
are enclosed in cases of silver or leather.
At night they merely take off the outer garment where they have two.
The scanty ablutions are very curious. Each family possesses a metal
jug of rather graceful form, with a long spout curiously curved, and
the mode of washing, which points to an accustomed scarcity of water,
is to pour a little into the palm of the right hand, and bathe the
face, arms, and hands with it, soap not being used. They conclude by
rinsing the mouth and rubbing the teeth either with the forefinger or
with the aromatic leaf of a small pink salvia.
I called by appointment on the Khan's wives, sixteen in number. An
ordinary tribesman marries as many wives as he can afford to house and
keep. Poverty and monogamy are not allied here. Women do nearly all
the work, large flocks create much female employment, and as it is
"contrary to Bakhtiari custom" to employ female servants who are not
wives, polygamy is very largely practised. On questioning the guides,
who are usually very poor men, I find that they have two, three, and
even four wives, the reverse of what is customary among the peasants
of Turkey and Persia proper. The influence of a chief increases with
the number of his wives, as it enlarges his own family connections,
and those made by the marriages of his many sons and daughters. Large
families are the rule. Six children is the average in a monogamous
household, and the rate of infant mortality is very low.
The "fort" is really picturesque, though forlorn and dirty. It is
built on the steep slope of a hill, and on one side is three stories
in height. It has a long gallery in front, with fretwork above the
posts which support the roof, round towers at two of the corners, and
many irregular roofs, and steep zigzags cut in the rock lead up to
it. The centre is a quadrangle. When I reached the gateway under the
tower many women welcomed me, and led me down a darkish passage to the
gallery aforesaid, which has a pretty view of low hills, with
mulberries and pomegranates in the foreground. This gallery runs the
whole length of the fort, and good rooms open upon it. It was
furnished with rugs upon the floor, and two long wooden settees,
covered with checked native blankets in squares of Indian yellow and
madder red.
I had presents for the favourite wife, but as one man said this was
the favourite, and another that, and the hungry eyes of sixteen women
were fixed on the parcels, I took the safer course of presenting them
to the Khan for the "ladies of the _andarun_." Yahya Khan sent to know
if it would be agreeable to me for him to make his salaam to me, a
proposal which I gladly accepted as a relief from the curiosity and
disagreeable familiarity of the women. There was a complete rabble of
women in the gallery, with crawling children and screaming babies--a
forlorn, disorderly household, in which the component parts made no
secret of their hatred and jealousy of each other.
I pitied the Khan as he came in to this Babel of intriguing women and
untutored children--of women without womanliness and children without
innocence--the lord and master of the women, but not in any noble
sense their husband, nor is the house, or any polygamous house, in any
sense a home.
The wife who, I was afterwards told, is the "reigning favourite" sat
on the same settee as her lord, and he ignored the whole of them. Her
father, Bagha Khan, asked me to give into his care the present for
her, lest it should make the other wives jealous.
Yahya Khan rules a large part of the Pulawand tribe, 1000 families,
and aspires to the chieftainship of its subdivisions, among which are
the Bosakis, Hajwands, Isawands, and Hebidis, numbering 2800
families.[10]
[Illustration: YAHYA KHAN.]
He is a tall, big, middle-aged man with a very wide mouth, and a beard
dyed auburn with henna--very intelligent, especially as regards his
own interests, and very well off, having built his castle himself.