208 PURCHASE OF CAMELS FOR MILITARY PURPOSES. 



ation in caravans, and also in the service of military expeditions. 

 There is not a common mirza attached to the defter"^ who has not 

 dromedaries of his own. Far from being an expense to their owner, 

 they are employed to his profit in transporting military supplies in 

 war and merchandise in peace ; whence it is that the government is. 

 never apprehensive of the want of the means of transportation in its 



expeditions. t 



The dromedaries attached to regiments belong to the colonel, who, 

 as required, employs them in transporting hard bread or flour. It is 

 to the interest of this officer to treat his men well, as he is always 

 chosen from the chiefs of their tribe ; they are really his clansmen. 

 He must seek to be beloved by them to keep his office. J He must 

 know, moreover, how to enhance his services with the king, the means 

 by which grants of villages, honors, and titles are obtained. The 

 colonel furnishes, also, the dromedaries required for the transportation 

 of the sick and wounded ; the government, therefore, is never troubled 

 with these details. The Persian soldiers carry neither knapsack nor 

 haversack. At the beginning of the campaign each foot soldier re- 

 ceives from the government a toman (about $2 25) to procure a bag- 

 gage animal. Five men unite to buy an ass, if the expedition is into 

 a mountainous country ; and 10 tomans to buy a dromedary, if the 

 campaign is in a level one. The animal is loaded with their tents, 

 clothes, and guns, and sometimes with provisions to sell. This traffic 

 is very profitable, for often they return home with la^-ge sums of money 

 acquired by it, and also by other lawful means. The colonels are 

 also charged, at government expense, with the transportation of mu- 

 nitions of war, and are held responsible for them.§ 



To give all the details of the system would force me beyond the 

 limits I have prescribed to myself. |1 A few notes which I add will 

 enable the reader to understand how this system, in spite of the long 

 train it involves, gives to the army greater mobility when once in 

 motion, and is exactly suited to the Persian method of warfare. 



The dromedary, then, has always been employed in Persia as a 

 means of military transportation. T[ This animal, steady as well as 

 patient, and capable of performing long and toilsome journeys, is 

 especially of indisputable service in this vast country, where the vil- 

 lages are at long distances from each other, and where in the country 

 between them there are neither roads practicable for carriages nor 

 bridges to cross the deep ravines worn by torrents. The mountain 



* A civil officer who attends the king in his campaigns. The shah of Persia is always 

 accompanitd by his ministers, even in his longest expeditions. 



t It may be said that every man in the country understands tiie nature, hygean, defects, 

 and good qualities of the dromedary. There is no necessity, therefore, for any instruction of 

 the Pirsian soldiers in these particulars. 



I It has more than once happened that an avaricious colonel, who has neglected his men, has 

 been contumeliously dragged by them to the feet of the king, where he has cruelly ex- 

 piated the privations he had imposed upon them. 



§ When the king heads the expedition, the munitions of war are transported by the drome- 

 daries attached to the karkhane, (arsenal.) 



II Omitted, as they do not bear upon our immediate purpose. — H. C. W. 



H Parmenion took possession of the camp of the barbarians, with all its baggage, elephants, 

 and dromedaries, (Arrian, book III, chap. 5.) 



