In the land of the lion and sun, or, modern Persia

by C. J. Wills

I reached Teheran on the 13th of April, and meeting M. Sergipatoffski, one of the attachés at the Russian Legation, three stages out, I hurried in just in time to be present at the races got up by the Europeans, of which he advised me.

Being too wayworn and dirty to be introduced to the ladies, I saw the principal race decided in my posting dress. Here I saw one hundred pounds offered to my chief, Mr. B⸺, for his chestnut horse, Arkansas, who walked off with the big race as he pleased. Mr. B⸺ refused it, but the animal was not good for much afterwards.

I looked forward to a good rest, but on the 15th I had, after a two days’ stay, to start on duty at nine P.M., getting to Ispahan after a heavy journey in sixty-three hours (rain came down nearly the whole time. Distance, two hundred and seventy-two miles) on the 18th of April. My colleague, Dr. C⸺, whom I had gone thus hurriedly to attend, was seriously ill, but soon got on his legs.

Early in June I left under orders for Shiraz, marching at night, on account of the heat. In this mode of travelling one sees little of the country. For distances and stages see [Appendix].

In this journey, on my second stage, I met a poor prince, Abbas Kuli Khan, who was travelling with his little daughter, aged nine, and a companion, Hadji Ali Akbar, a priest. This priest was a great sportsman, and a very amusing companion. Abbas Kuli Khan was a relative of my friend Abu Seif Mirza, of Hamadan, and introduced himself. He was one of the large number of poor princes of Shiraz. His pension from Government was very irregularly paid, and he was travelling with “kajaweh” (covered paniers) for his little daughter, and a pony on which he and the priest rode alternately. The roads from the commencement of the famine were very unsafe, and they were as glad to increase the force of my caravan as I was to get a reinforcement of two determined well-armed men. The little daughter delighted in the tremendous name of Bēbē Sakineh Sultan Khanum, and was very like a pet monkey, being mischief personified. The presence of these people broke the monotony of the fifteen days’ march to Shiraz.

One thing that attracts one’s attention when marching is the road-beetle. These insects seem to be perpetually employed in moving the balls of horse or camel dung to their nests off the road. They exhibit wonderful instinct in their manœuvres to effect this object, and to bury the balls; they also bury themselves at the same time. Their search for the balls of dung is conducted on the wing, and they never seem to touch anything else. When found, the insect alights and proceeds to roll the ball by main force, either standing on its hindmost legs and rolling it as we do casks, or at times placing its head to the ground, and propelling the ball by the hind legs. Many of the insects are trodden underfoot by horses, as they seem impelled by a passion to bury the dung regardless of external circumstances. They vary much in size, from a Barcelona nut to that of a walnut. Through the activity of these insects very little horse-dung, save that which is trodden, is seen on the roads. They work summer and winter, and as one marches in the sun, with one’s eyes on the ground, one is astonished at the myriads of these beetles.

At times, too, for about two days in spring, the ground teems with mole crickets. For two days around Meshed-i-Mūrghab, in the neighbourhood of Shiraz, there were such numbers that one would be seen in each space two yards square for several miles; two days after, though I searched for them, I could not find one. Near Ispahan, too, some fortnight afterwards, I found them innumerable, and next day I again failed to find a single individual in the same place. Do they all come out at once, i. e. in one or two days?

Lizards are very numerous in some places, and their varieties infinite; the dry, stony plains swarm with them in hot weather. They are generally small, but I have seen them over a yard long. The little fellows simply run a yard or two to escape the horse’s hoof, and then remain motionless to avoid observation. One often thus loses sight of them when attempting to watch them, so like in colour are they to the plain. The dogs on first starting on a march generally chase, kill, and eat them. They invariably vomit after it, and quite tire themselves out; as the journey tells on them, however, they cease to notice the lizards.