“Is that your wife?”
“Yes, my wife.”
“Well, I wouldn’t have a wife so old and ugly as that. Get a young one.”
The situation for both lady and gentleman was embarrassing.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
JOURNEY TO AND FROM TEHERAN.
Proceed to Teheran—Takhtrowan—Duties—Gulhaek—Lawn-tennis—Guebre gardener—A good road—The Shah—Custom of the Kūrūk—M. Gersteiger—Cossack regiments—Austrian officers—New coinage—Count Monteforte—New police—Boulevard des Ambassadeurs—English Embassy—Tile gates—Summer palaces—Bazaars—Russian goods—Demarvend—Drive to Ispahan—Difficulties of the journey—Accidents—Danger of sunstroke—Turkeys—Keeping peacocks—Armenian tribute of poultry—Burmese and Japanese embassies—Entertainment and fireworks—Cruel treatment of Jews—Oil paintings—Bahram and his queen—Practice makes perfect—Pharaoh and the Red Sea—Pharaoh and the magicians.
After an eighteen months’ stay in Julfa (Ispahan) I received orders to proceed to Teheran “to act” (for my chief).
We started, my wife travelling in a “takhtrowan” (moving bed). This consists of a box with doors and windows, six feet long, three feet wide, and four feet high. A thick mattress is placed in it, and plenty of pillows. Where the road is fairly level, as from Ispahan to Teheran, it is not a bad way of travelling for a lady. The great cause of satisfaction to her was that she had her baby with her. Water was kept out of the machine by a waterproof sheet being tacked to the top, and a thick carpet was lashed over the roof when travelling in strong sun. At each end of the box are shafts, and between each pair a mule. The movement is at first rather sickening, but this is soon got over, and the traveller sleeps the greater portion of the stage.
Although we travelled as lightly as possible, we were forced to take twenty-four mules, and were heartily glad when our journey, which was twelve long stages, and without incident of any kind, was over. I hired a little house at Gulhaek, the village where are situated the summer quarters of the English Embassy, and where lives the chief of my Department, in the summer.