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

by C. J. Wills

CHAPTER XXVII.
SHIRAZ.

Bagh-i-Takht—Jews’ burial-ground—Christians’ cemetery—Its desecration—Sergeant Collins’s murder—Capture and execution of the robbers—How it was brought home to them—Memorial to Collins—Health of the staff—Persians as servants—Persian cuisine—Kabobs, varieties of—English dinners—Confectionery—Fruits—Vegetables—Pickles, etc.—Cook-shops—Trotters—Mode of selling meat—Game—Eggs—Wild vegetables—Potatoes—Disinclination to use new seeds, and its cause—Narcissus—General use of flower decoration—Tame birds—Wild birds—White ants—Damaging the line—Hamilton poles.

Behind the town of Shiraz, under the hills, lies the Bagh-i-Takht, or “throne garden.” In addition to its large size, it is remarkable for a peculiar building on terraces, once very magnificent. These terraces are faced by a wall of glazed tiles, white, blue, black, and yellow. Placed behind a tank so large as to be almost a lake, this curious construction is reflected in the water, and presents a sufficiently strange appearance. On some of the terraces are rows of orange-trees, and on others a succession of fountains; these, alas! play no more. The terraces are very narrow, and do not at first strike the eye as such, and appear a many-coloured wall with rows of trees, apparently growing out of it, and the whole crowned by a lofty building, having more large trees within its walls, and then the sky; the reflection of this and its consequent doubling forms a very striking, if rococo, picture. At either side is a lofty summer-house of several stories, and at the further corners of the tank are low towers, which serve as points of vantage from which the curious view can be admired.

The whole is more like a representation made upon screens of canvas than a solid structure, and it looks like the pictures exhibited at the Surrey Gardens in old days, from which the beholders were delighted with the fireworks and siege of Badajos, or the storming of Chusan. The place is indeed often used for the display of fireworks, and a really grand effect is obtained, of course doubled by the reflection in the water.

To the right of this garden lies the Jews’ burial-ground, marked merely by a few small flat stones with Hebrew characters on them. The grass and weeds grow luxuriantly, and one has almost to search for the place, but it is a large and ancient graveyard.

Behind the garden, on the surface of the hill, is the place used by the Christians as a cemetery. Here lie Captain Chambers and Mr. H. V. Walton, the maid-servant of the latter, and several children of the staff; also some Armenians. The place, like the Jews’ burial-ground, lay open, on the face of the hill, unremarked and unvisited; but unfortunately a subscription was raised, and a huge mud wall with four towers was erected, also a small doorway and a stone door. Then followed what was certain to take place—the graves were desecrated by the Persians; every little tombstone and memorial was broken into pieces; even the bricks were torn from the bricked graves and flung about, and the Christian burial-ground became the favourite drinking-place of the loafers of the town. Away from all habitation as it was, and surrounded by a high wall, it was a place of security for the holding of the drunken revels of the worst of the rabble; and this was all caused by the unfortunate wall. In this ground also lies Sergeant Collins, who was murdered about fourteen miles from Shiraz, while I was in the place.

Sergeant Collins was one of the inspectors of the line, and of great personal bravery. He was an old soldier of the best type, rough, but honest and thorough, and ever doing his duty. He had had a hard life as a sapper, having been through the China war, and had nearly completed his service for pension. Sergeant Collins was upon the road, accompanied by his wife, with two servants, a man and woman, and a muleteer and his boy. The country was disturbed, and he should doubtless have been accompanied by a guard, but this precaution was not taken.

The sergeant, who was weak and ill at the time, was lying upon the bedding thrown on a baggage-mule, being too weak, from a recent attack of fever and ague, to sit his horse. His muleteer suddenly shouted to him, “Sahib, they have blocked the road.” Collins sat up on his mule and saw some men in front of him covering him with their guns. These commanded him to get down; the only reply that he made was to tell them to be off, and to fire his revolver twice at them. It appeared that the second shot slightly wounded one of the men. The thieves now rushed in, firing as they came; more thieves closed in from behind and also fired. Collins was hit in two places, and death must have been instantaneous, as a post-mortem examination I made two days after, when the body was brought in, showed that one bullet passed into the brain, and another fired from behind entered the chest. He fell at once, and the ruffians rushed in and beat the body with their iron-headed bludgeons, breaking one arm. They then blindfolded his Armenian wife and his two servants, and carried them some distance off the road, where they detained them till after midnight. The dead body was also dragged off the road itself. Some time elapsed ere the murderers could be brought to justice.

Five of these came to a dismal ending. One died in some weeks from a gunshot wound; it was said that this was from one of the shots fired by Collins. One committed suicide when the Persian authorities had made the pursuit very hot. This is a most unusual thing in the East. Three others were after considerable trouble arrested, and thrown into the jail at Shiraz.