11th. The storm of thunder and rain which we had foreboded, fell in the evening of the preceding day, and refreshed the air which had been sultry, and gave us a most delightful morning.
We left Casvin just as the morning broke at about four o’clock; and proceeded in a direction of S. 40 W. to Siah Dehan, a village in the plain of Casvin, a distance of twenty miles, called six fursungs, which we performed in five hours. The road over this part of the plain was the most beautiful and the most level of any that I had seen in Persia. It was fine hard gravel; and the plain on each side of it was in high verdure, one grass plat on which many thousands of cavalry might manœuvre admirably.
The villages continued as numerous as those that we had before remarked in our last day’s route. They were neatly entrenched in square walls with towers at each angle. The wind which blew from the Northward refreshed the air, and made it even cold: this, which is here the prevailing wind, is called the Baad Gagazgoon, as it blows from a little district of that name, composed of ten or fifteen small villages, situated on the N. hills. At four miles from Siah Dehan we stopped at a village on the side of the road called Keck. The inhabitants looked at us over the walls, and did not seem willing to come out to us; at last a little boy ventured forth: I questioned him about his own village and those around, but he seemed shy in giving answers; and when he saw me take out my pocket-book to write down the memoranda, he asked me with a very suspicious face, “What are you writing there?” and then ran off as fast as he could. In a little time after we heard his companions cry out, “they are Roos,” (or Russians), a report which, of course, he had spread abroad in his village, to the fear of all the inhabitants.
The name of the villages, according to his intelligence, were, Kenish, distant two fursungs, N. 10 W.; Akchegan, one fursung and a half, N. 60 W.; Ash-hasar, N. 40 W.; and Alangaya, two fursungs, N. 30 W. All this plain is under the jurisdiction of Casvin; I should think it about thirty miles in breadth, but a haze over the country might deceive me. The mountains to the right are here diminished to hills; and, joining the Southern mountains on a bearing of S. 40 W. terminate the plain of Casvin. On the plain we saw the houpe, partridges, and two deer, with many flocks of sheep. Siah Dehan has about five hundred houses. The inhabitants complain of a great scarcity of water; and, though their village is surrounded by gardens, they expect altogether but miserable crops. They told us, with much warmth, of the injustice with which another village had appropriated the water of Siah Dehan to their own use, by turning the course of the Kanauts. We were lodged in the best house that the place could afford, and had a barber to wait on us. This custom of making the barber the Homme d’Affaires is common to the villages around.
12th. We went from Siah Dehan to Nouri, a place situated at the end of the plain of Casvin, and the first in the Bolouk of Hamzé. The distance is called six fursungs, but from the time (seven hours) that we were on our horses, I should reckon it at twenty-five miles. As we set off at midnight I did not distinguish much on either side, till the break of day, when I discovered several very pretty villages, on the hills and near the side of the road to the left. The plain had here narrowed to a breadth of about three miles: the hills to the right were quite diminutive, and those to the left were decreasing in their height. The bearing of Nouri from Siah Dehan may be about W.; this is a guess, for at night I could only judge by the position of the stars, and in the day my compass would not traverse. We stopped at a village called Courvé, to feed our horses on the new barley which was in some places breast-high. A peasant told us that two neighbouring villages to the Eastward were called Ziabet and Parsin; they are situated on the banks of a small stream, which meanders through the plain from W. to E. There are many other villages, the names of which I did not learn, all surrounded by cultivation, and forming green and picturesque objects. The whole country, indeed, was one carpet of verdure; and on the breaking of the morning the freshness of the odour was beyond any thing grateful. We had several severe showers; the storm gathering over the Western hills, and falling down in great torrents. This rain, so providential for the poor Rayats, seemed to spread universal joy amongst them.
13th. We proceeded this morning just as the sun rose, and were four hours on the road, to Sihin Caléh, on a bearing of N. 45 W. and a distance called four fursungs, and by my calculation about fourteen miles. At about three miles on the left of the road, amid very picturesque scenery, is the small village of Sherafabad. From this at the distance of a mile, (in a situation equally picturesque, and surrounded for a considerable distance by trees and cultivation) is the large place of Abhar. About three miles further on, still on the same side of the road, lies Khorremderré, in the bosom of trees and gardens.
We stopped on its skirts to feed our cattle, and to breakfast. We seated ourselves under the shade of some cherry trees, and by the side of one of the running streams of fine pure water, which abound in the neighbourhood. We met a caravan on a pilgrimage to the tomb of Imaum Reza, at Mesched; the Chaoush or conductor of which, (a man on horseback carrying a green triangular flag) complained to us that the people at Khorremderré had stolen his cloak. We sent a man with him into the town, and after some difficulty, procured the recovery of the garb to its right owner.
Tomb of Sultan Mohamed Khadabende
Sultaniéh.
Drawn by James Morier Esqr.
Published by Messrs. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, Paternoster Row, May 1, 1811.