“Why not?” I replied. “Look, look! the huge scorpion!” I shouted. He jumped up, seized a stick, and ran into the charcoal cupboard, for it was nothing more.
“Where?” said he.
“There! there!” said I.
He was well inside—to slam and secure the heavy doors was the work of a moment. He shouted and swore, kicking at the door, but it was a very strong one, and nobody came to his assistance. He then entreated, promising to go elsewhere; but I couldn’t trust him, and so I composed myself to sleep, and soon dropped off. In the morning on waking a melancholy voice entreated liberation; but I could not do it then, as he might have taken vengeance. So I went off to the Governor, and complained of the intrusion on my quarters; my man then liberated the much-begrimed but now humbled Khan; and I got another set of rooms, in which I was more comfortable.
I saw no more of the Khan: the laugh was too strong against him, and he returned at once to Shiraz. Until my arrival the Governor was not aware of the nature of his disorder; with great trouble I got him to reduce his opium and cease his potations. I was happily able to give him relief, and we parted mutually satisfied after I had been five days at Fussa.
The place was much warmer than Shiraz; grain and cattle were cheap indeed here. The soil, though sandy, is very fertile; and the town, or rather collection of villages (for it is more a district than a town), is interspersed with groves of date palms. Oranges are, of course, abundant, and there is great plenty in the place. There had need be, for the exactions of those in power are very great in Persia. The people were a laughing, careless set, devoid of fanaticism, having indeed very little religion. Nearly all drank wine to excess. The women seldom veiled, and talked with me without any mauvaise honte. They indeed seemed to do most of the work; for the field-work was probably not heavy, save at harvest-time, the country being so very fertile. The road from Fussa was a howling desert, except a well-watered village about half-way.
We passed the edge of the big Salt Lake, some ten miles from Shiraz, on which appears an island, or what looks like an island. After skirting this lake, whose shores are bordered by an edge of mud some fifty yards in width, we reached the village of Jaffir-a-bad, and thence, passing small villages and gardens in every direction, got to the plain of Shiraz. The pony brought me in as quickly as I had gone out, and I had had a peep at country life in the south of Persia.
The prince’s hakim-bashi, the M.D. of Paris, replaced me, and he, too, had a week’s leave. When he left, the old Syud told the patient that he had gangrene, cut off the gouty toe, and being unable to staunch the blood, the man died in forty-eight hours.
A year after this, one of the sergeants built a large boat for the exploration of the Salt Lake. This boat-building was an amusement for us, but the boat was found to be so heavy that it required fifteen porters to carry her through the streets. She certainly held eight people, but was very deep in the water, and more a barge than a boat, but as she was flat-bottomed she would not turn over. While I was in Ispahan, where I had gone on duty, she was placed on the large tank of the Bagh-i-Takht, and after twenty-four hours left to the mercy of the populace. I believe she is at the bottom of that tank now.