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

by C. J. Wills

I promptly replied: “Be off; I am a European.”

“Stand!” said a voice; and I saw a black object in the shadow of the wall. I drew my revolver and placed it on full cock; I stuck my spurs into my wretched horse; but the presence of other beasts was enough for him; he merely swayed with weakness, but did not budge. The black object now rapidly approached, and resolved itself into five horsemen, who surrounded me, and, prodding me with the muzzles of their guns, ordered me to dismount in a series of hoarse whispers.

My thieves were well mounted and well armed; the odds were too great for a fight. I couldn’t run away, and the guide had disappeared, having slipped off his horse and run. I used strong language and tried to brazen it out, but it was of no use.

I was lugged off my horse, and several blows were struck at my head, but my topi[23] kept them off. My assailants now stripped me so rapidly as to show they were adepts in the matter. They were evidently in a great hurry. I put my revolver on half-cock and dropped it, thinking that I should be stripped and left; but I had reckoned again without my host. When they had stripped me to my breeches and shirt, one fellow seized the pocket in which was my money, and with one slash of his knife removed it, slitting the leg of my pants to the knee. As another man was dragging off my shirt, he remarked that it was silk, the fineness of the linen deceiving his touch. I was now ordered to come along, and there being no option, did so; but I felt the cold to my naked back, and asked them for a covering, purposely in broken Persian, thinking that if they did not know I was au fait at the language, I might the better get at their intentions. One man, the chief, ordered one of the village felt greatcoats to be flung to me. I gladly wrapped myself in it, and picking up my revolver, concealed it in the sleeve, trusting to have a chance of perhaps selling my life dearly, or ending it if any indignity were offered me. I had not gone many yards, when the thorns began to enter my feet, and render walking painful. I now requested to be put on a horse, but the only reply was an order to come on at once, which was repeated, and a gun put to my head. But I was desperate. I foresaw that if I walked I should be lamed for months, and certainly in no condition to escape. The chief now rode up, and I appealed to him in very broken Persian. He ordered me to be put on one of the post-horses, and to come on at once, adding significantly, “If you don’t, we shall kill you here.” I felt that there would be no chance to escape at present, but that I might possibly have a future opportunity. We now left the road, and pushed on in the direction of the Bakhtiari country. I was glad to see that the two post-horses lagged considerably and delayed us much. I found, too, that there was a mule loaded with grain that these gentry had stolen, which was driven by two men armed with iron-headed bludgeons. Our party was now nine—the five horsemen, well armed and mounted; the two footmen; the guide, who had been secured, and whose hands were tied behind his back; and myself. By this time I calculated that it was about two A.M. I could see better, now we were on the open plain.

The head of our captors was addressed as Lutf Ali Khan. He kept ahead, and avoided all intercourse with me. His head and face were carefully covered with a long strip of calico, which was wound round and round his head as a disguise. What little I could see of his face was blackened with charcoal.

As dawn approached I was able to make out these details, and to take my bearings to find the road again should I succeed in getting away. The robbers were all well mounted, and their horses were fat and in good condition. I noted the particulars of each man, but the chief gave me no chance to recognize him.

At dawn, as we passed under a high cliff, we heard shots fired, and bullets began to fly about our heads. The horsemen returned the fire, which came from some twenty footmen who were perched in coigns of vantage and under shelter, on the top and face of the cliff. It was now daylight, and the pleasures of being shot at were not increased when I saw that the practice was good, for one of the horsemen now lost a finger. A good deal of shouting took place, but as it was in Turkish, I could not make out its purport. At last they seemed to come to some sort of understanding, for the firing ceased, and the footmen came down from the cliff into the plain. These men were evidently also Bakhtiaris, and were led by a small old man clad in white; he wore zangāl, a kind of leather legging, and had a long, red-dyed beard, and a tall felt hat. From what I overheard, I found out that the second party had outnumbered the first, and that my spoils were to be divided. The difficulty seemed to be about myself.

The head of the footmen said: “You have looted this Feringhi; with this we have nothing to do. We loot not him, but you.”

The man who had lost his finger now came to have it dressed, which I did as well as I could for him. Instead of being grateful, he merely, in most expressive pantomime, drew his finger across his throat. Upon the principle that dead men tell no tales, it was undoubtedly their intention to put me out of the way. And had we not met the second gang, it would have probably been done where we were, a lonely place, safe from all interruption; but there were now too many witnesses to the fact of my having been carried off. We continued our march, accompanied by the footmen, about thirty men, including ourselves. I found out afterwards that the men who had looted me had only the day before robbed a Syud, or descendant of the prophet, a moollah (or priest), and after stripping him, as he was a holy man, and they did not like to kill him in cold blood, they laid him on the ground, piled big stones on him so that he could not stir, and left him to die in the desert of hunger and thirst. His body was found half eaten by jackals, and the men confessed the fact when they had no further reason for denying it. So had there been no second party arriving, I should have fared ill. At about nine A.M. we halted. I was placed in charge of the two footmen armed with iron-headed staves; and the guide, whose hands had remained bound, with the two post-horses and the load of grain, remained guarded by them. The rest of the horsemen and the footmen retired to some three hundred yards off, and commenced to unpack my saddle-bags. I was now quite unarmed, for when the reinforcement came up, I felt that to get away by any act of violence was impossible; and as the finding of the revolver on me would probably cost me my life, I dropped it when I had an opportunity of doing so unperceived.

Several times men came to me from the anxious throng that surrounded my kit and asked me the value or use of the divers objects. To the latter I did not attempt to respond, but I satisfied them as to the former by putting high values on everything, thinking thereby to increase my own importance. I told them my aluminium watch was worth forty pounds, and, as it was very massive, they believed it. My guards insisted on cutting off the brass buttons from my riding breeches, saying to each other that they were gold. The thieves argued and shouted a good deal over the spoil, and one of my guards joined the excited circle formed round my kit, while the other manifested the greatest interest in their proceedings.