Bakhtiari Lurs, which supplies the ruling dynasty. The building is a
parallelogram, flanked by four round towers, with large casemates and
a keep on its southern side. It has two courtyards, surrounded by
stables and barracks, but there is no water within the gates, and
earthquakes and neglect have reduced much of it to a semi-ruinous
condition. Over the gateway and along the front is a handsome suite of
well-arranged balconied rooms, richly decorated in Persian style, the
front and doors of the large reception-room being of fretwork filled
in with amber and pale blue glass, and the roof and walls are covered
with small mirrors set so as to resemble facets, with medallion
pictures of beauties and of the chase let in at intervals. The effect
of the mirrors is striking, and even beautiful. There were very
handsome rugs on the floor, and divans covered with Kashan velvet; but
rugs, divans, and squabs were heaped to the depth of some inches with
rose petals which were being prepared for rose-water, and the
principal wife rose out of a perfect bed of them.
These ladies have no conversation, and relapse into apathy after
asking a few personal questions. Again they said they wished to see
the Agha, of whose height and prowess many rumours had reached them,
but when I suggested that they might see him from the roof or balcony
they said they were afraid. Again they said they had such dull lives,
and regretted my departure, as they thought they might come and see my
tent. I felt sorry for them, sorrier than I can say, as I realised
more fully the unspeakable degradation and dulness of their lives. A
perfect rabble of dirty women and children filled the passages and
staircase.
On one of my last evenings I rode, attended only by Mirza, to the
village of Dastgird to see two women whose husband desired medicines
for them. This village is piled upon the hillside at the north end of
the valley and a traveller can be seen afar off. I had never visited
any of the camps so slenderly escorted, and when I saw the roofs
covered with men and numbers more running to the stream with long guns
slung behind their backs and big knives in their girdles, I was much
afraid that they might be rude in the absence of a European man, and
that I should get into trouble. At the stream the _ketchuda_, whose
wives were ill, and several of the principal inhabitants met me. They
salaamed, touched their hearts and brows, two held my stirrups, others
walked alongside, and an ever-increasing escort took me up the steep
rude alley of the village to the low arch by which the headman's
courtyard--all rocks, holes, and heaps--is entered.
Dismounting was a difficulty. Several men got hold of _Screw_, one
made a step of his back, another of his knee, one grasped my foot, two
got hold of my arms, all shouting and disputing as to how to proceed,
but somehow I was hauled off, and lifted by strong arms up into the
_atrium_, the floor of which was covered with their woven rugs, across
which they led me to an improvised place of honour, a _karsi_ covered
with a red blanket. A brass _samovar_ was steaming hospitably on the
floor, surrounded by tea-glasses, trays, and sugar. The chief paid me
the usual Persian compliment, "Your presence purifies the house;" men
crowded in, shrouded women peeped through doorways; they served me on
bended knees with tea _a la Russe_, and though they shouted very loud,
and often all together, they made me very cordially welcome. They send
their flocks with some of their people to warmer regions for the
winter, but the chief and many families remain, though the snow is
from seven to nine feet deep, according to their marks on a post.
I rode to the camp where the wives were, with the Khan and a number of
men on foot and on horseback, a messenger having been sent in advance.
In the village the great sheep-dogs, as usual, showed extreme
hostility, and one, madder than the rest, a powerful savage, attacked
me, fixing his teeth in my stirrup guard, and hanging on. The Khan
drew a revolver and shot him through the back, killing him at once,
and threatened to beat the owner. _Screw_ was quite undisturbed by the
incident.
The power of the _ketchuda_ or headman of a group of families is not
absolute even in this small area. His duties are to arrange the annual
migrations, punish small crimes summarily, to report larger crimes to
the Khan, to collect the tribute, conjointly with the Khan, and to
carry out his orders among the families of his group. Private
oppression appears to be much practised among the _ketchudas_, and
under the feeble rule of Imam Kuli Khan to be seldom exposed. The
_ketchuda's_ office, originally elective, has a great tendency to
become hereditary, but at any moment the Ilkhani may declare it
elective in a special case.
Though the offices of Ilkhani and Ilbegi are held only annually at the
pleasure of the Shah, and the _ketchudas_ are properly elective, the
office of Khan or chief is strictly hereditary, though it does not
necessarily fall to the eldest son. This element of permanence gives
the Khan almost supreme authority in his tribe, and when the Ilkhani
is a weak man and a Khan is a strong one, he is practically
independent, except in the matter of the tribute to the Shah.
It was in curbing the power of these Khans by steering a shrewd and
even course among their feuds and conflicts, by justice and
consideration in the collection of the revenues, and by rendering it a
matter of self-interest for them to seek his protection and
acknowledge his headship, that Sir A. H. Layard's friend, Mohammed
Taki Khan, succeeded in reducing these wild tribes to something like
order, and Hussein Kuli Khan, "the last real ruler of the Bakhtiaris,"
pursued the same methods with nearly equal success.
But things have changed, and a fresh era of broils and rivalries has
set in, and in addition to tribal feuds and jealousies, the
universally-erected line of partisanship between the adherents of the
Ilkhani and Ilbegi produces anything but a pacific prospect. These
broils, and the prospects of fighting, are the subjects discussed at
my tent door in the evenings.
[Illustration: A DASTGIRD TENT.]
The Dastgird encampment that evening was the romance of camp life. On
the velvety green grass there were four high black canopies, open at
the front and sides, looking across the green flowery plain, on which
the Ilkhani's castle stood out, a violet mass against the sunset gold,
between the snow-streaked mountains. There were handsome carpets,
mattresses, and bolsters; _samovars_ steaming on big brass trays, an
abundance of curds, milk, and whey, and at one end of the largest tent
there were two very fine mares, untethered, with young foals, and
children rolling about among their feet. I was placed, as usual, on
a bolster, and the tent filled with people, all shouting, and
clamouring together, bringing rheumatism ("wind in the bones"), sore
eyes, headaches ("wind in the head"), and old age to be cured. The
Khan's wife, a handsome, pathetic-looking girl, had become an
epileptic a fortnight ago. This malady is sadly common. Of the 278
people who have come for medicines here thirteen per cent have had
epileptic fits. They call them "faintings," and have no horror of
them. Eye diseases, including such severe forms as cataract and
glaucoma, rheumatism, headaches, and dyspepsia are their most severe
ailments. No people have been seen with chest complaints, bone
diseases, or cancer.
In the largest tent there was a young mother with an infant less than
twenty-four hours old, and already its eyebrows, or at all events the
place where eyebrows will be, were deeply stained and curved. At seven
or eight years old girls are tattooed on hands, arms, neck, and chest,
and the face is decorated with stars on the forehead and chin.
Though children of both sexes are dearly loved among these people, it
is only at the birth of a son that there is anything like festivity,
and most of the people are too poor to do more even then than
distribute sweetmeats among their friends and relations. The
"wealthier" families celebrate the birth of a firstborn son with
music, feasting, and dancing.
At the age of five or six days the child is named, by whispering the
Divine name in its ear, along with that chosen by the parents.
After a long visit the people all kissed my hand, raising it to their
foreheads afterwards, and the Khan made a mounting block of his back,
and rode with me to the main path. It was all savage, but the
intention was throughout courteous, according to their notions. It
became pitch dark, and I lost my way, and should have pulled _Screw_
over a precipice but for his sagacious self-will. One of the finest
sights I have seen was my own camp in a thunderstorm, with its white
tents revealed by a flash of lightning, which lighted for a second the
black darkness of the ravine.
The next morning the Khan of Dastgird's servants brought fifteen
bottles and pipkins for eye-lotions and medicines. In spite of the
directions in Persian which Mirza put upon the bottles, I doubt not
that some of the eye-lotions will be swallowed, and that some of the
medicines will be put into the eyes!
_June 8._--The last evening has come after a busy day. The
difficulties in the way of getting ready for the start to-morrow have
been great. The iron socket of my tent-pole broke, there was no smith
in the valley, and when one arrived with the Ilkhani, the Ilkhani's
direct order had to be obtained before he would finish the work he had
undertaken. I supplied the iron, but then there was no charcoal. I
have been tentless for the whole day. Provisions for forty days have
to be taken from Chigakhor, and two cwts. of rice and flour have been
promised over and over again, but have only partially arrived
to-night. Hassan has bought a horse and a cow, and they have both
strayed, and he has gone in search of them, and Mirza in search of
him, and both have been away for hours.
Of the escorts promised by the Ilkhani not one man has arrived, though
it was considered that the letter to him given me by the
Amin-es-Sultan would have obviated any difficulty on this score. An
armed sentry was to have slept in front of my tent, and a _tufangchi_
was to have been my constant attendant, and I have nobody. Of the
escort promised to the Agha not one man has appeared. In this case we
are left to do what General Schindler and others in Tihran and
Isfahan declared to be impossible, viz. to get through the country
without an escort and without the moral support of a retainer high in
the Ilkhani's service. Whether there have been crooked dealings; or
whether the Ilkhani, in spite of his promises, regards the presence of
travellers in his country with disfavour; or whether, apprehending a
collision, both the Ilkhani and Ilbegi are unwilling to part with any
of their horsemen, it is impossible to decide.
I. L. B.
END OF VOL. I
_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, _Edinburgh_.