Camp at Abusheher--Horses--Abdûlla Aga--Anecdote of Arab.
Soon after we arrived at Abusheher our camp looked like a fair for
horses and mules. It was necessary to mount, not only the Elchee and
his suite, but his escort of English and Indian cavalry, and all the
servants, public and private; for in Persia nobody walks. To suit the
different persons of our party, animals of different descriptions were
wanted; from the coarse Persian galloway[14] to the Arabian of pure
strain,[15] many of which are bred on the Persian shore, with as much
attention to preserve the original blood, as imported from Arabia, as
could be shown in the first race-studs in England.
Hyder, the Elchee's master of the chase, was the person who imparted
knowledge to me on all subjects relating to Arabian horses. He would
descant by the hour on the qualities of a colt that was yet untried,
but which, he concluded, must possess all the perfections of its sire
and dam, with whose histories, and that of their progenitors, he was
well acquainted. Hyder had shares in five or six famous brood mares;
and he told me a mare was sometimes divided amongst ten or twelve
Arabs, which accounted for the groups of half-naked fellows whom I saw
watching, with anxiety, the progress made by their managing partner
in a bargain for one of the produce. They often displayed, on these
occasions, no small violence of temper; and I have more than once
observed a party leading off their ragged colt in a perfect fury, at
the blood of Daghee or Shumehtee, or some renowned sire or grandsire,
being depreciated by an inadequate offer, from an ignorant Indian or
European.
The Arabs place still more value on their mares than on their horses;
but even the latter are sometimes esteemed beyond all price. When the
Envoy, returning from his former mission, was encamped near Bagdad,
an Arab rode a bright bay horse, of extraordinary shape and beauty,
before his tent, till he attracted his notice. On being asked if
he would sell him--"What will you give me?" said he. "It depends
upon his age; I suppose he is past five?" "Guess again," was the
reply. "Four?" "Look at his mouth," said the Arab, with a smile. On
examination he was found rising three; this, from his size and perfect
symmetry, greatly enhanced his value. The Envoy said, "I will give you
fifty tomans."[16] "A little more, if you please," said the fellow,
apparently entertained. "Eighty! a hundred!" He shook his head and
smiled. The offer came at last to two hundred tomans! "Well," said the
Arab, seemingly quite satisfied, "you need not tempt me any farther--it
is of no use; you are a fine Elchee; you have fine horses, camels, and
mules, and I am told you have loads of silver and gold: now," added he,
"you want my colt, but you shall not have him for all you have got." So
saying he rode off to the desert, whence he had come, and where he, no
doubt, amused his brethren with an account of what had passed between
him and the European Envoy.
Inquiry was made of some officers of the Pasha of Bagdad respecting
this young man; they did not know him, but conjectured that,
notwithstanding his homely appearance, he was the son or brother of a
chief, or perhaps himself the head of a family; and such Arabs, they
said, when in comparative affluence, no money could bribe to sell a
horse like the one described.
I was one day relating the above story to Abdûlla Aga, the former
governor of Bussorah, who was at Abusheher, having been obliged to fly
from Turkey. He told me that, when in authority, he several times had
great trouble in adjusting disputes among Arab tribes regarding a horse
or mare which had been carried off by one of them from another; not on
account of the value of the animals, that having been often offered
ten-fold, but from jealousy of their neighbour's becoming possessed of
a breed of horses which they desired to remain exclusively in their
own tribe. An Arab Shaikh or chief, he told me, who lived within fifty
miles of Bussorah, had a favourite breed of horses. He lost one of his
best mares, and could not for a long time discover whether she was
stolen or had strayed. Some time afterwards, a young man of a different
tribe, who had long wished to marry his daughter, but had always
been rejected by the Shaikh, obtained the lady's consent and eloped
with her. The Shaikh and his followers pursued; but the lover and
his mistress, mounted on the same horse, made a wonderful march, and
escaped. The old chief swore that the fellow was either mounted upon
the devil or the favourite mare he had lost. After his return he found,
on inquiry, the latter was the case; that the lover was the thief of
his mare as well as of his daughter, and that he had stolen the one for
the purpose of carrying off the other. He was quite gratified to think
he had not been beaten by a horse of another breed, and was easily
reconciled to the young man, in order that he might recover the mare,
which appeared an object about which he was more solicitous than his
daughter.
Abdûlla Aga is a man in whose company I take great pleasure. His
understanding is vigorous and strong, and he has sufficient knowledge
of the English character to speak his sentiments with freedom and
confidence. I shall give the substance of a conversation I had with
him about two weeks after my arrival, regarding the present condition
of Persia and Turkey, with the resources and character of both which
states he is intimately acquainted. Speaking of Turkey, he said he had
no idea of its having the power to resist the slightest attack; and he
believed, if left alone, it would soon fall to pieces of itself.--"I
am myself a Turk, and know my countrymen well: from the Grand Signior
to the lowest peasant in the empire, they are alike devoid of public
virtue and patriotism; and that spirit of religion, which has long been
the only bond of union that has kept this unwieldy state together, is
every day becoming fainter; and while the Wahâbees are making converts
of the inhabitants of Arabia and Syria, the provinces of Turkey in
Europe are relaxing from their religious zeal, and becoming every day
more ripe for the rule of those Christian nations, under whose power
they must soon fall."
I could not help saying, I thought he drew an overcharged picture of
the weak and distracted state of his country. "You will soon see," he
said, "whether I am right or wrong. No man, whatever may be his rank,
looks beyond his beard in Turkey: if he can find any expedient that
gives him a prospect of its growing grey in quiet, he is content; and
where all are so decidedly selfish in their views, who is to provide
for the safety of the state, to guard which there must be some common
sentiment of union?"
"What think you of Persia?" I asked. "Why, twenty times worse than of
Turkey," replied he; "because they are to the full as devoid of every
public principle, and much more ignorant. Believe me, you will soon
be satisfied that they deserve this character. Can there be a doubt,
at the present moment, how they ought to act between you and the
French? And yet you will be able to settle nothing with them that is
in the least satisfactory, without heavy bribes or harsh measures. The
latter," he added, "will be the wisest in the present instance; for to
feed their cupidity is only to whet their appetite, and to encourage
them in a course that will, in its result, prove as injurious to these
short-sighted fools as to the interests of the English government."
"The Elchee's intentions are so friendly," I observed in reply, "and
his wishes so correspond with their true interests, that they must, I
think, meet them, when all the advantages are explained." "Before you
anticipate success from such an explanation, you should be certain
that those to whom you speak have sense to comprehend you, which the
Persians certainly have not. They think of nothing at this moment
but the Russians, with whom they have discovered they are not able
to contend. The French pretend to relieve them from this formidable
danger, which they have not themselves the courage to face; and they
cling to this promise without ever considering how far those who make
it have the means of performing it. They neither understand the nature
or distance of the resources of England or France, and are consequently
incapable of forming a correct idea of the comparative power which
those states possess of aiding or injuring them. They know that Bombay
is within a month's sail, Madras six weeks, and Calcutta two months;
and they believe you have some ships at these places; but even of these
they have no clear idea; and as to Europe, they are as ignorant as an
Abyssinian."
"Assuredly," said I, "you underrate their knowledge." "I do not," said
Abdûlla; "they are worse than I have painted them, and their ignorance
is so fortified by pride, that there is no hope of their amendment.
Why (said he, with animation), what can you expect from men who are
ignorant of the surface of the globe? There," said he, pointing to a
rude Turkish book on geography, which lay near him, and appeared to
be a translation from an old geographical grammar--"there is the only
source of my knowledge, which does not place me on a par with one of
your schoolboys of twelve years of age; and yet I am a wonder among
these fools, who are astonished at the extent of my information in this
branch of science."
Though I think it is a very deep and wise observation of that arch
politician Machiavel, that the report of a man who has fled his country
should not be implicitly trusted, as there must be a bias in his mind
to depreciate what he has been obliged to abandon: still there is much
truth in the picture which Abdûlla drew of Turkey, and his description
of the Persians was not greatly exaggerated. The knowledge of that
nation is limited to what they see before them, and their ideas of
other States are very indistinct and confused, and consequently liable
to frequent fluctuations and changes. All ranks in Persia are brought
up to admire show and parade; and they are more likely to act from the
dictates of imagination and vanity, than of reason and judgment. Their
character was well drawn by Mahomed Nubbee Khan, the late ambassador
to India. "If you wish my countrymen to understand you, speak to their
eyes, not their ears."
My conversation with Abdûlla Aga was interrupted by the arrival of a
medical gentleman, who had long resided at Abusheher, and who was not
more remarkable for skill in his profession than a kindness of heart,
which led him to devote his time to the poor inhabitants of the country
who sought his aid. He had just been setting the broken leg of an Arab,
of whom he gave us a very characteristic anecdote.
"The patient," the doctor said, "complained more of the accident which
had befallen him than I thought becoming in one of his tribe. This
I remarked to him, and his answer was truly amusing. 'Do not think,
doctor, I should have uttered one word of complaint if my own high-bred
colt, in a playful kick, had broke both my legs; but to have a bone
broken by a brute of a jackass is too bad, and I will complain.'"
This distinction of feeling, as to the mode in which bones are broken,
is not confined to the Arabs. I once met an artilleryman, after an
action in India, with his arm shattered, who was loudly lamenting his
bad fortune. I pointed, in an upbraiding manner, to some fine fellows
on the ground, whose luck had been worse. "It is not the wound, sir,"
he retorted, in a passion, "of which I complain: had I lost a limb by
a cannon-ball, I should not have said a word; but to lose one by a
rascally rocket would make any one mad!"
FOOTNOTES:
[14] Yaboo.
[15] _Regee Pak_, the term by which these high-bred animals are
distinguished, means literally "pure veins."
[16] A toman is a nominal coin, nearly the value of a pound sterling.