604 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1913. 



his position near his master, and the vahli charged his minister to 

 do the same to my attendants. 



I then sent to the vahli by my head servant the presents brought 

 from Paris for his sake, chiefly some arms inlaid with gold or silver. 

 The same day or the next morning he sent to me by his head equerry 

 a very fine horse. 



These ceremonies finished, etiquette was ended, and we afterwards 

 met only in the most familiar manner. His sons, his minister, often 

 came to see me, and I made it a point always to return their visits, 

 I talked with them about a thousand things of the countr3^ I asked 

 them about their habits, the people, the politics of the tribes, and 

 they asked me details about Europe. In 1896 Hussein Kuli Kahn 

 gave me for a guide in his country an old equerry long in his service. 

 In 1904 I asked to see this man. He had become a paralyzed old 

 man, so that the}^ had to carry him to my camp. 



They talked much at Pusht-i-Kuh of the recollection that Eu- 

 ropeans preserve of services that have been rendered them, while 

 among the nomads a man is forgotten from the day when there is 

 nothing more to expect from him. 



On the death of Hussein Kuli Kahn his elder son, the conqueror 

 of the Direkvends, of whom we spoke above, succeeded him b}^ right, 

 but the younger son for many years would not agree to sen^e under 

 the authority of his brother. He withdrew to his domain of Hou- 

 leilan ^ and went to war against the new vahli, as at the time when 

 the sons of one of the Arsacidse disputed the throne after his death. 

 Finally, the two brothers were reconciled, peace was restored in 

 Pusht-i-Kuh, and, as formerly, all was ruled there according to 

 feudal traditions. 



Other Iranian high seigniors are the vahlis of the Bakhtiyari, 

 whose tribes occupy all the country between Ispahan and Shuster, be- 

 tween the river Ab-e-Diz and the vicinity of Bender Buchir. They 

 are the principal vassals of the kings of Persia. The organization of 

 their tribes is the same as at Pusht-i-Kuh, except that the Balditiyari 

 army can put in the field from fifteen to twenty thousand men ; and 

 the khans as well as the vahlis of this country, coming in frequent 

 contact with the Persians of Ispahan and with Europeans, are much 

 more intelligent than the seigniors of Luristan. Many go to Eu- 

 rope, some speak English or French, which, however, does not hin- 

 der them from adhering just as closely as my friends of Pusht-i-Kuh 

 to the old feudal institutions. 



The tribes of Bakhtiyari are to-day the soul of Persia, because they 

 are powerful and well governed. To be sure, there are some frac- 



1 A district in the valley of the S^in-M6r6 to the north of Pusht-i-Kuh which Hussein 

 Kuli Khan had bought for his younger son, foreseeing that his succession involvod some 

 difficulties between his children. 



