87.—LOUTY AND BAKTYAN.
The intending visitor sets out on horseback accompanied by as many of his servants as he can collect, the djelodar, with the embroidered saddle-cloth across his shoulders, at his horse’s head; and behind him the kalyaudjy (musician) with his instrument. When he reaches the door he wishes to stop at, he dismounts. He then, with his servants in front of him, traverses one or two passages, invariably low and dark, and sometimes one or two courts, before reaching the apartments of the master of the house. If his visitor is of higher rank than himself, the host comes to the door to receive him. If they are equals, he sends his son or one of his young relations to do so. The opening courtesies are extremely flowery, such as “How came your lordship to conceive the compassionate idea of visiting this lowly roof?” &c.
When they reach the drawing-room, they find all the men of the family standing in a row against the wall bowing to the new-comer. As soon as every one is seated, the visitor inquires of the master of the house, “If, by the will of God, his nose is fat.” The latter replies: “Glory be to God! it is so, by means of your goodness.” This same question is sometimes repeated three or four times running. After a few moments of conversation, tea, coffee, and sherbet are handed round. The great charm of this rather frivolous gossip is its exaggeration, and the witty and amusing turn given to it.
The Persians have a peculiar taste for calligraphy. Painting is an almost unknown art amongst them. They possess, however, a certain amount of artistic instinct, as is shown by the richness and elegance of some of their monuments.
[Fig. 87] shows the reader other types of Persian costume worn by different classes. The Louty and the Baktyan represented in this sketch are members of a nomadic tribe, enjoying rather a bad reputation.
The Afghans inhabit the mountainous region lying to the north of the lowlands of the Punjaub, that is to say, the basin of the Indus. Their climate is a charming one. The Afghans are fine muscular men with a long face, high cheek-bones and a prominent nose. Their hair is generally black. Their skin, according to the part of the country they inhabit, is dark, tawny, or white. They are an unpolished, warlike race, differing in customs and in language both from the Persians and the natives of India. They are subdivided into many tribes or clans.
The Beloochees, addicted to pastoral life, and primitive in their habits, move about from place to place, dwelling in tents which are constructed of felt on a slight framework of willow. They wander, with their flocks, about the table lands surrounding Kelat. They are to be found in nearly the whole of that part of eastern Persia, which, lying between Afghanistan to the north and the Indian Ocean to the south, stretches westwards from the Indus to the great Salt Desert. They speak a dialect derived from the Persian.