The carboys have to be ordered of the glass-blowers. They are well made, and hold from ten to four-and-twenty bottles. A rushworker has then to be engaged, who sits in a corner of the courtyard, and with handfuls of rushes makes a kind of rope. This he sews into an upper and a lower cup. The upper one, having a hole in the middle, is thrust over the neck of the carboy, which is then placed on the lower one; the two edges are sewn together, and the fragile carboy is safely packed, and will travel long distances securely.
Many, for economy’s sake, buy the carboys in which rose-water has been stored, for they are to be had very cheap; but a sort of false bouquet is produced, which is very distasteful to the connoisseur, and puzzles one much on first tasting it.
When wine is to be packed for transport, it is usually packed in baghallis, or native bottles; these, too, have to be ordered from a glass-blower; they are, when empty, very fragile, but of considerable strength when full; they hold a pint and a half. They have a little cotton-wool crammed into the neck, and on this is poured melted beeswax; they are thus securely fastened.
A box of thin planks, three feet by two, is made (the planks sewn, not nailed together); in this four to six dozen are packed in loose straw, a rush mat two inches thick is sewn on the top, and the thing is done.
A load of wine thus packed will travel over the roughest roads by mule or camel for a thousand miles without coming to grief.
I was glad to have made my wine myself, or rather under my own eye, as the same year that made by the Jews for the Governor all turned sour, and was, of course, spoilt.
I did not have to pay any duty, as the English employés of the telegraph in Persia are allowed to escape customs exactions of every kind—by treaty. But, as a rule, the customs people detain our goods, and only give them up on an order being got from the authorities in the capital, which has been obtained by the interposition of the Legation. Thus cases at times lie in the sun spoiling for weeks.
I had always, however, managed to obtain any little things I had from England, till just now, by cajoling the custom-house farmer, which was a shorter process than writing letters to the embassy at Teheran.
I had been getting some photographic apparatus for the Governor, and the muleteer arrived to tell me that the two cases were in the custom-house. I sent a verbal message to the man in charge, to ask him to let my servant take them, as he knew no duty was payable by Europeans. But I got back a rude reply that unless I had an order I must pay five per cent. ad valorem or in kind. Now these particular cases were the Governor’s photographic apparatus, for which he was very anxious: and in them I saw an opportunity of retorting on the custom-house people for the continual annoyance given in the clearing our cases. So I went to the custom-house and saw the gumrūkji, or customs-master.
“Where is your order, sahib? I can deliver nothing without an order.”