698 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1913. 



The tribe itself produces the greater part of the necessaries of life. 

 Wheat, barley, and tobacco are raised in summer in the mountains, 

 and the cattle furnish meat, cheese, milk, curd, whey, woolens, carpets, 

 tent cloths, ropes, etc. So that the only articles the nomads must 

 procure in the cities are arms, ammunition, white and red cotton- 

 ades worn by the men and women, salt, sugar, tea, cooking utensils, 

 and other manufactured articles. The pecuniary resources of the 

 tribe comes from the sale of wool and hair, rugs and felts, horses and 

 cattle ; but they sell few of their herds which are used, on the contrary, 

 to increase them. Though these men possess all that is indispen- 

 sible for life, they are very poor in actual money, so that the posses- 

 sion of a few krans (about 10 cents) is their constant thought. 



The feudal customs of these tribes are reflected to some extent in 

 the way in which the fellahs labor in our workshops; each shop 

 equipped with 50 men is headed by a Ser Kar (foreman) who, 

 although paid, would receive from his workmen 1 day's wages out of 

 every 10. Each 10 days also another day's wages is assigned to the 

 khan of whom these men are dependents and who furnishes them for 

 our employ. In fact these fellahs give 20 per cent of their salary to 

 their chiefs. I was forced to abolish this tithe and forbid it. But 

 since such things are done in secret they continued as if I had said 

 nothing. To-day I close my eyes. 



The Seghvends, through their contact with the cities of Arabistan, 

 and also on account of their presence for 15 years in the workshops 

 of Susa, are to-day much more civilized than their congeners, the 

 Direkvends and Bairanvends, who have their winter quarters in the 

 valley of the Sein-Mere. These tribes, administered the same as the 

 Seghvends, have been exempt from the law for many years. They 

 are bandits, robbing caravans and stealing from their neighbors who 

 are nomads like themselves; they are therefore looked upon with 

 disfavor throughout Luristan. One day on the route between 

 Ivlioramabad and Dizful they robbed an entire Persian regiment, the 

 colonel at its head, without doing other harm to any one; but they 

 took everything — arms, ammunition, provisions, baggage, uniforms, 

 horses, and mules — and little was their need for them, for it was 

 only in the costume of Apollo Belvedere that this valiant regiment, 

 with colonel ahead, made its triumphal entry into the city of Dizful, 

 to which it was assigned as garrison. 



This unfortunate pleasantry, however, led the governor of Lur- 

 istan, a prince of royal blood, residing at Kermanushah, to decide 

 to severely punish the miscreants; but, since it costs to levy troops 

 for such a task, he charged the other khans heavily and required 

 the Vahli of Pusht-i-Kuh to make these insolents " tchapou " (depriv- 

 ing them of everything save life). As may well be believed, the 



