SECOND VISIT TO SHAPOUR,
APRIL, 1811.
“We proceeded over the plain to the Southward and Westward, to see what a peasant called the Kaleh or Castle, and the Mesjed or Mosque, which are large conspicuous buildings seen from almost all parts of the plain. These we found to be Mohammedan structures, excepting part of an ancient wall or buttress, and a column, with a square fallen capital, that are to be seen in the former, and of the same age as the edifices at Shapour. In the square of this ruined castle we found some little black tents of the wandering tribes; from the good folks of which we got some dong or butter-milk, of which they drink large quantities at this season. We surprised them by asking them if they had any Poul Kadeim or ancient money; to which they answered, very ingenuously, that they had neither new nor old. The fact is, that old coins are more frequently found amongst these sort of people than amongst any other; for if they find any, the favourite wife generally has them suspended with her other trinkets, in a necklace around her neck. When old coins or money out of use fall into the hands of town’s people, traders, shopkeepers, or such like, they generally melt it down immediately, and get it recoined. In all our researches for old coins, we have been unsuccessful, and it has only been by the greatest chance that we have now and then got a Sassanian or an Arsacian medal. A man brought what he called a collection of old coins to the Embassador: they consisted of a Reaal of the age of Shah Abbas, a Cuffic piece of money, a gold coin of the worst time of the middle ages, and an English halfpenny.”