When I had sketched these monuments, and completed my observations, I hastened to join my party, who were then considerably advanced. A man who filled some station about the camp joined me. He asked my opinion on the probable design of these sculptures, and when I had told him my own conceptions, he assured me, that the royal personage here also was Rustam; and when I reminded him that their own traditional King, Jemsheed, might possibly be the hero, he replied in the true spirit of a system, “Jemsheed was but the slave of Rustam.” Of the figures grasping the ring, one again (according to the same theory) was Rustam, in the act of proving his strength, by wrenching it from the other’s hand.
CHAP. VIII.
PERSEPOLIS TO ISPAHAN.
JEMSHEED’S HAREM—PASS THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS—MESJED MADRE SULEIMAN; DOUBTS ON THE TOMB OF CYRUS—MOORGH-AUB—DIFFICULTIES OF THE PASSAGE THROUGH PERSIA—STORM—LETTER FROM THE KING—CASTLE OF BAHRAM—RUINED VILLAGES OVER THE COUNTRY—YEZDIKHAUST—CARAVANSERAI AT MAXHOUD BEGGY—KOMESHAH; RUINS—THE ENVOY AND THE GOVERNOR—MAYAR; CARAVANSERAI—QUARRELS BETWEEN THE PEOPLE OF IRAK AND FARS.
Jan. 17. As we were quitting the environs of Persepolis, and proceeding towards Ispahan, we saw on an eminence on the left of the road (which now bore north-westerly) a single column erect, and some fragments of stones and masonry adjoining. They were situated in the centre of an extensive spot, which, from the configuration of the land around, in elevated terraces and mounds, appeared an artificial enclosure: and, as my Persian companion hinted, might be the site of a fortification or a castle. The wall, indeed, in many parts could be traced on the summit of the mounds. On arriving at the ruins, I discovered them to consist of a solitary pillar, with a double-headed sphinx for its capital, besides, strewed on the ground, a great quantity of shafts, bases, and capitals of the same dimensions as the upright column, and all, together with it, of the same description as those at Persepolis. Several large blocks are arranged about, as the fragments of some building. The column is fluted like the Doric, but with lines more closely connected: it is one foot eight inches in diameter at the bottom, and six inches less at the top: the height is a little above seventeen feet; and the base, including a tore next the shaft, is two feet more. The legs and bodies of the sphinxes are in two separate blocks. The largest of the adjacent blocks erect is seven feet two inches broad, and eleven feet eight inches high. Nakshi Rustam bore N. 50. W. from this place. A little further on is the ruin of a large pillar not fluted, and the fragments of a sphinx which certainly had been the capital. These remains, according to my companion’s tradition, were the site of Jemsheed’s harem.
We returned to the road which led through a dilapidated but massy gate, situated at the extremity of the projecting foot of the mountains. In the centre of the road are three stones; that in the middle is a broken column, and the two between which it stands are of a columnar form. It has, probably, been a beautiful object. The rocks to the left (a marble of the same kind as that at Nakshi Rustam) bear evident marks of having been worked and excavated. The road led us over a soil, as fine as that of the plain of Merdasht, watered by the Rood Khonéh Sewund. Having reached the extremity of that range, on the Western point of which are the sculptures of Nakshi Rustam, we turned to the left at a village called Seidoun. At the foot of an abrupt part of the mountain on the right, but still at a considerable ascent from the plain, is situated the village of Sewund. Our encampment was below, near the banks of the stream of that name. The snipes, ducks, herons, and bitterns from these quarters made an admirable addition to the luxury of our table. The march of this day was called three fursungs, which we computed at thirteen miles.
18th. We continued our journey along the banks with a North wind fresh in our faces, and crossed the river about half a mile from our encampment. We then turned an abrupt promontory of the high land on the right, and, for the remainder of the march, travelled nearly due East, between mountains whose brown and arid sides presented nothing to cheer or enliven the way. As we approached Kemeen (a distance of fifteen miles from Sewund) we were greeted by all the inhabitants of the village, who exhausted their whole ingenuity to do honour to the Envoy. They fired frequent vollies, created an immense dust, broke vases of sugar, beat drums, blew trumpets, and themselves made loud and shrill shrieks. In return for all this, handfuls of money were thrown among them. Among the many performers was a lad who preceded us, twirling a stick about with great agility between his fingers; in this exercise he persevered so intently, regardless of all the pressure of the animals and the crowd, that at length the nose of the Envoy’s horse received the full force of his art. The Derveish of the Hafizeea overtook us here to ask the present which had been promised to him. As he had been empowered to receive it at Shiraz, the Envoy conceived that his errand was a fraud, and dismissed him therefore, paying his expences back, with an order for the sum if it should not have been already paid.
19th. An easterly breeze, which sprung up this morning, rendered it extremely cold, and depressed the thermometer to 30°. We travelled between the bases of two abrupt chains of mountains, for about two miles against the wind; when we took a sudden direction to the North, in which we continued generally until we came to Moorgh-aub, a distance of fourteen miles, according to our reckoning. The pass through the mountains, in a military point of view, presents most admirable means of impeding the progress of an enemy. At the distance of two miles from Moorgh-aub, I turned on the left from the road, to examine some ruins which I had noticed. Proceeding over the ploughed fields, which nearly overspread the whole of this plain, I came to the bed of a river lying in a North and South direction, and on its banks a village called Meshed Omoun. There is here a fort, and a few low houses, in which females only were left, as all the men had gone out to greet the Envoy, by the discharge of their matchlocks. About a mile further are situated the collective ruins, called by the people of the country Mesjid Madré Suleiman, the tomb of the mother of Solomon. The first object is a pillar erect, a plain shaft without a capital ten feet five inches in circumference. Near it are three pilasters, the fronts of which are excavated in deep niches, and the sides inscribed with the following characters. (See plate XXIX.) From the pieces of masonry around, the pilasters appeared to have enclosed a hall; the interior of which was decorated with columns, but I resigned the hope of ascertaining the plan of its original form, when I saw two similar masses; one, at the distance of one hundred and fifty yards, with a corresponding inscription; and the intermediate space (and indeed the whole plain) strewed with the fragments of marbles.
Having sketched these objects, I continued my way along the plain to the West, towards two buildings; which, at a distance indeed, appeared scarcely worthy of notice, but which on a nearer inspection proved full of interest. The first is a ruined building of Mahomedan construction, which is now turned into a caravanserai. The door was once arched, and on the architrave are the remains of a fine Arabic inscription.