Mountaineers--Valley of Kazeroon--Virtue of Nitric Acid--Rizâ Kooli
Khan's loss of Eyes--Extraordinary Birds--Beautiful Valley of
Dusht-e-Arjun--Mahomed Rizâ Khan Byat--Irish Patriotism--Persian
Squire.
Nothing can be more striking than the change from the Gurmaseer, or
hot region, as they term the arid track on the shores of the Persian
Gulf, to the fine climate and rich soil of the elevated plains of
the interior of that country. After travelling fifty-five miles, we
reached the mountains. From the village of Dalkhee, famous for its date
plantations and streams impregnated with naphtha, and which lies at
the foot of the first range, we proceeded by narrow paths, which wound
along the face of the rugged and steep mountain we were ascending. When
near its summit, we were met by the Chiefs of the tribes and villages
in the vicinity. These, with their principal adherents, on horseback,
were drawn up on the crest of the mountain, while their other followers
sprang from rock to rock, firing their matchlocks in honour of the
strangers. Their ragged clothing, their robust forms, their rapid
evolutions (which, though apparently in disorder, were all by signal),
amid precipices, where it seemed dangerous to walk, the reports of
their fire-arms, reverberating from the surrounding hills, gave an
interest to these scenes which a fine writer might dwell on for pages,
but I shall content myself with the fact, that we passed in security
the two great ranges of mountains that intervene between the sea-shore
and the valley of Kazeroon; on entering which, our eyes were not only
cheered by rich fields, but also with wild myrtle, blackberry bushes,
and willows. The latter, shadowing small but clear rivulets, gave me
and others a feeling of home, which he who has not travelled in a far
distant land can never understand. Those of our party who had not been
in Persia before were quite delighted at the change of scene, and began
to give us credit for the roses and nightingales which we promised
them on its still happier plains. What they had seen of the inhabitants
of the mountains we had passed inclined them to believe the marvellous
tales we told of the tribe of Mama Sunee, who boast of having preserved
their name and habits unaltered from the time of Alexander the Great.
We had good reason, when on the first Mission, to remember this tribe,
who, in conformity to one of their most ancient usages, had plundered
a part of our baggage that was unfortunately left without a guard in
our rear. The loss would have been greater but for a curious incident.
Among the camels left behind was one loaded with bottles containing
nitric acid, which had been furnished in considerable quantities to
us at Bombay. The able physician[27] who discovered its virtues was
solicitous that its efficacy should have a fair trial in Persia; and
it certainly proved a sovereign remedy in an extreme case, but one in
which he had not anticipated its effects. The robbers, after plundering
several camel loads, came to that with the nitric acid. They cast it
from the back of the animal upon the ground. The bottles broke, and
the smoke and smell of their contents so alarmed the ignorant and
superstitious Mama Sunees, that they fled in dismay, fully satisfied
that a pent-up genie of the Faringees had been let loose, and would
take ample vengeance on them for their misdeeds. The truth of this
was proved by the testimonies of the camel drivers, the subsequent
confession of some of the thieves, and the circumstance of several of
the loads which were near the nitric acid being untouched.
The city of Kazeroon is situated near the ancient Shapoor, with whose
ruins antiquarians are delighted, and whose deserted fields were
equally prized by our sportsmen, from their abounding with game.
I was myself much amused with a hunt of black partridges[28] at this
place, on which we were accompanied by thirty or forty horsemen. They
scattered themselves over a grassy plain, and the moment a partridge
was flushed, the man nearest it gave a shout, while such as were in
the direction in which it flew rode over the bird, which was hardly
allowed to touch the ground before it was raised again, and hunted as
before. Its flights became shorter; and after three or four, when quite
exhausted, it was picked up by one of the horsemen, several of whom had
little dogs called "scenters," to aid them in finding the partridge
when it took shelter in the long grass or bushes. We caught about
twenty brace of birds the first morning that I partook in this sport.
Rizâ Kooli Khan, the Governor of Kazeroon, came to pay the Elchee a
visit. This old nobleman had a silk band over his eye-sockets, having
had his eyes put out during the late contest between the Zend and Kajir
families for the throne of Persia. He began, soon after he was seated,
to relate his misfortunes, and the tears actually came to my eyes at
the thoughts of the old man's sufferings; when judge of my surprise
to find it was to entertain, not to distress us, he was giving the
narration, and that, in spite of the revolting subject, I was compelled
to smile at a tale, which in any country except Persia would have
been deemed a subject for a tragedy: but as poisons may by use become
aliment, so misfortunes, however dreadful, when they are of daily
occurrence, appear like common events of life. But it was the manner
and feelings of the narrator that, in this instance, gave the comic
effect to the tragedy of which he was the hero.
"I had been too active a partisan," said Rizâ Kooli Khan, "of the Kajir
family, to expect much mercy when I fell into the hands of the rascally
tribe of Zend. I looked for death, and was rather surprised at the
lenity which only condemned me to lose my eyes. A stout fellow of a
ferash[29] came as executioner of the sentence; he had in his hand a
large blunt knife, which he meant to make his instrument: I offered him
twenty tomans if he would use a penknife I showed him. He refused in
the most brutal manner, called me a merciless villain, asserting that I
had slain his brother, and that he had solicited the present office to
gratify his revenge, adding, his only regret was not being allowed to
put me to death.
"Seeing," continued Rizâ Kooli, "that I had no tenderness to look for
from this fellow, I pretended submission, and laid myself on my back;
he seemed quite pleased, tucked up his sleeves, brandished his knife,
and very composedly put one knee on my chest, and was proceeding to
his butchering work, as if I had been a stupid innocent lamb, that was
quite content to let him do what he chose. Observing him, from this
impression, off his guard, I raised one of my feet, and planting it on
the pit of his stomach, sent him heels over head in a way that would
have made you laugh (imitating with his foot the action he described,
and laughing heartily himself at the recollection of it). I sprung up;
so did my enemy; we had a short tussle--but he was the stronger; and
having knocked me down, succeeded in taking out my eyes.
"The pain at the moment," said the old Khan, "was lessened by the
warmth occasioned by the struggle. The wounds soon healed; and when the
Kajirs obtained the undisputed sovereignty of Persia, I was rewarded
for my suffering in their cause. All my sons have been promoted, and
I am Governor of this town and province. Here I am in affluence, and
enjoying a repose to which men who can see are in this country perfect
strangers. If there is a deficiency of revenue, or any real or alleged
cause for which another Governor would be removed, beaten, or put to
death, the king says, 'Never mind, it is poor blind Rizâ Kooli; let
him alone:' so you observe, Elchee, that I have no reason to complain,
being in fact better defended from misfortune by the loss of my two
eyes, than I could be by the possession of twenty of the clearest in
Persia:" and he laughed again at this second joke.
Meerzâ Aga Meer, the Persian secretary, when commenting upon Rizâ Kooli
Khan's story, said that his grounds of consolation were substantial;
for that a stronger contrast could not exist between his condition, as
he had described it, and that of others who are employed as Revenue
officers under the present administration of Fars. "I cannot better,"
said he, "illustrate this fact than by the witty and bold answer given
a short time since by one of the nobles to the Prince Regent at Shiraz.
The Prince asked of his advisers what punishment was great enough for a
very heinous offender who was brought before him; 'Make him a Collector
of Revenue,' said an old favourite nobleman; 'there can be no crime
for which such an appointment will not soon bring a very sufficient
punishment.'"
We had an amusing account of an adventure which had occurred at
Kazeroon to two Gentlemen of the Mission, who had been sent some months
before to Shiraz. One of these, a relation of the Elchee, I have before
mentioned as particularly averse to what he deemed unnecessary fatigue
of body. But he and his companion had their curiosity so much raised by
the accounts they received of two strange creatures, that were said to
be in a house at the distance of fifteen miles, that in spite of the
severity of the weather (for it was winter), and the difficulties of
the road, they determined to go and see them.
In answer to their inquiries, one man said, "These creatures are
very like birds, for they have feathers and two legs; but then their
head is bare and has a fleshy look, and one of them has a long black
beard on its breast." But the chief point on which they dwelt was the
singularity of their voice, which was altogether unlike that of any
other bird they had ever heard of or seen. An old man, who had gone
from Kazeroon to see them, declared it was a guttural sound very like
Arabic, but confessed that though he had listened with great attention,
he had not been able to make out one word they uttered.
When the party arrived, very fatigued, at the end of their journey,
the inhabitants of the small village where the objects of curiosity
were kept came out to meet them. Being conducted to the house where the
birds were shut up, the door was opened, and out marched--a turkey-cock
and hen! the former, rejoicing in his release from confinement,
immediately commenced his Arabic. The Persians who came from Kazeroon
were lost in astonishment, while our two friends looked at each other
with that expression of countenance which indicates a doubt, between
an inclination to laugh or to be angry; the former feeling however
prevailed. Their merriment surprised the Persians, who, on being
informed of its cause, seemed disappointed to hear that the birds which
appeared so strange to them were very common both in India and England.
From the account given by the possessor of the turkeys, it appeared
that they had been saved from the wreck of a vessel in the Gulf, and
had gradually come to the part of the interior where they then were.
From Kazeroon to Dusht-e-Arjun is but a short distance, but the ascent
is great; and pleased as we had been with Kazeroon, we found all nature
with a different aspect in this small but delightful valley, which
is encircled by mountains, down whose rugged sides a hundred rills
contribute their waters to form the lake in its centre. The beauty of
these streams, some of which fall in a succession of cascades from
hills covered with vines; the lake itself, in whose clear bosom is
reflected the image of the mountains by which it is overhung; the
rich fields on its margin; and the roses, hyacinths, and almost every
species of flower that grow in wild luxuriance on its borders, made us
gaze with admiration on this charming scene; while the Persians, who
enjoyed our looks and expressions of delight, kept exclaiming, "Iran
hemeen ast!--Iran hemeen ast!" This is Persia!--This is Persia!
I was rejoiced on this day's march to meet my old friend Mahomed Rizâ
Khan Byat, who had come from Shiraz to compliment the Elchee. He
galloped up to me like a boy, calling out "You are welcome." I could
hardly believe my eyes on finding him look younger and brisker than
he did when I left him ten years before, at the age of sixty-eight,
eating, every day, a quantity of opium that was enough, according to
the calculation of our doctor, to poison thirty persons unaccustomed
to that drug. My regard for the old gentleman had led to my taking
no small pains to break him of a habit that I was persuaded would
destroy him; and the doctor, from the same impression, was my zealous
auxiliary. For him my friend inquired the moment he had welcomed
me; when told he was in India, he replied, laughing, "I am sorry he
is not here; I would show him that Christian doctors, though they
can, according to our belief, through the aid and influence of their
Messiah, work miracles, as he did, by curing the blind and the lame,
are not all true prophets. He told me I should die if I did not
diminish my allowance of opium; I have increased it four-fold since he
in his wisdom predicted my demise, and here I am, near fourscore, as
young and as active as any of them:" so saying, he pushed his horse
to speed, and turning his body quite round, according to the habit
of the ancient Parthians with the bow, and the modern Persians with
the matchlock, fired a ball at a mark in the opposite direction to
that in which he was galloping. Riding up to me, he first stroked his
beard, which was too well dyed to discover a single white hair, and
then taking out a box I had given him ten years before, opened it, and
literally cast down his throat a handful of opium pills, repeating, "I
wish my friend the doctor had been here!"
I rode along with Mahomed Rizâ the remainder of the march; and,
according to his account, the condition of Persia was greatly improved.
Indeed the internal peace it had enjoyed since the full establishment
of the power of the late king Aga Mahomed Khan, must of itself have
produced that effect; for Nature has been so bountiful to this country
in climate, soil, and in every animal and vegetable production, that
man, spoilt as he is by her indulgence, cannot, without great and
continued efforts, destroy the blessings by which he is surrounded. I
was more pleased at my friend dwelling with a calm and contented mind
on this great change, from a knowledge of his history. His father,
Sâlah Khan, was one of the chief Omrâhs, or Nobles, at the Court of
Nadir Shâh when that conqueror was murdered. On that event Kings
started up in every province. Sâlah Khan among others entered the
lists. He seized upon Shiraz, the fortifications of which he extended
and improved; but his enjoyment of a royal name was short; he was made
prisoner, and put to death by Kerreem Khan. His son, whose character is
marked by the absence of ambition, has passed through life with respect
as the Chief of a tribe, but without enjoying, or perhaps desiring, any
station of consequence. He is of a happy and contented frame of mind,
and speaks of the latter part of his father's life as a brilliant but
troubled dream of power, to which he was very fortunate not to succeed.
The Prince and great men of Shiraz, on our approaching that city, so
loaded the Elchee with presents of ice-creams, sweetmeats, preserves,
and delicious fruits, that all in camp, down to the keepers of the
dogs, were busied in devouring these luxuries. A lion's share was
always allotted to a party of the 17th dragoons, which forms part
of the escort. I heard these fine fellows, who were all (with the
exception of one man) from Ireland, discussing, as they were eating
their ices, their preserves, their grapes, and nectarines, the merits
of Persia. "It is a jewel of a country," says one. "It would be," said
a second, "if there were more Christians in it." "I don't so much mind
the Christians," observed his companion, "if I could see a bog now and
then, instead of these eternal rocks and valleys, as they call them."
"Fine though it be," concluded corporal Corragan, "I would not give a
potatoe-garden in little Ireland for a dozen of it, and all that it
contains to boot." This patriotic sentiment, which appeared to meet
with general concurrence, closed the discussion.
The morning we left Dusht-e-Arjun, I rode a short way with an old reis
or squire, who is a proprietor of a considerable part of the valley.
"How happy you are," I said, "in possessing a tract so fertile, so
beautiful, and with such rich verdure." The old man shook his head:
"That verdure you so much admire," said he, "is our ruin; our valley
is the best grazing land in Persia, and the consequence is, princes
and nobles send their mules here to fatten; and while our fields of
grain and our gardens are trampled by these animals, we have to endure
the insolence, and often the oppression, of their servants; and these
fellows in our country (I don't know what they are in yours) are always
ten times worse than their masters."
FOOTNOTES:
[27] The late Dr. Helenus Scott.
[28] The Derraj, or black partridge, takes its name from its breast,
which is of that colour; the rest of its body is very much variegated.
Its throat and legs are red, as also the under parts of its tail; its
head is black, arched with spotted brown and white feathers, and one
spot of white below its eye. This beautiful bird is found in the higher
latitudes of India and in Persia; it is very common on the banks of the
Tigris.
[29] Ferash is a menial servant employed in a house to keep it clean
and take care of the furniture. He also pitches tents, spreads carpets,
&c. &c.