FEUDALISM IN PERSIA — DE MORGAN. 599 



war drags along and the Direkvends, after having bribed the Segh- 

 vend chiefs, secure through gifts, freedom from disturbance by the 

 Vahli of Pusht-i-Kuh. I was in these mountains when the presents 

 were received, which included a large sum of money, some mares, 

 some young girls, the handsomest of the tribe of Direkvends, some 

 arms, and some rugs. 



Were not these the presents that Asurbanipal received from petty 

 kings who aroused his wrath ? 



The Vahli took time for reflection, and after three days' seclusion 

 in his harem withdrew his troops. 



These Direkvends are very deeply in debt. The tribe I have known 

 the longest is that of a certain Asian-Khan living between the two 

 branches of the river Ab-e-Diz in a region which is a veritable chaos 

 of rugged mountains. In summer this personage with his men 

 dwelt in the mountains near the plateau, bordered on this side by 

 high cliffs; but when cold weather begins they leave by paths cut in 

 the balcony under the precipices and gain the warm valleys more to 

 the south. There they have their villages, their fields of rice, grain, 

 tobacco, and vegetables. The soil and their herds yield full abund- 

 ance. Within their domain are mines of salt and bitumen, and 

 immense forests of evergreen oak; and in the valleys all kinds of 

 fruits except the orange. They never need go to the cities, from 

 which thej^ receive arms and ammunition from time to time. Their 

 blue cotton costumas of material made and woven bj'^ themselves 

 are exactly like those of Persians of Acheemenian times, their head- 

 dress is the same; their beards and hair are of the same cut. Not 

 a thing has changed in that country since Darius ruled the Persians, 

 only in their weapons do these men differ from their ancestors. In 

 their inaccessible refuge they have braved all kings; invasions, con- 

 quests, have not touched them, and if they have become Mussulmans 

 it is only because their neighbors having adopted that religion they 

 have thought it more useful for the preservation of their liberty to 

 follow the general movement. Elsewhere in these mountains there 

 is very little concern alx)ut religious beliefs and usages; the women 

 do not veil the face, and in general this is to the great loss of those 

 who see them. 



The country inhabited by this tribe is admirably adapted to the 

 preservation of customs. It is a vast triangle bounded on the north 

 by mountains very difficult of access, and on the sides by rapid 

 rivers flowing through canyons many hundreds of meters deep. The 

 neighbors to the south and southeast are the Bakhtiyari, those to the 

 northwest and west are the Seghvends. But these people have no 

 relations with their congeners on the right or the left; they are not 

 even laiown by name in the neighboring tribes. They are the most 

 isolated beings that you can see on a continent. In 1891 I attempted 



