232 PURCHASE OF CAMELS FOR MILITARY PURPOSES. 



of some importance. It is said by some that the noise of drums and 

 trumpets frightens the dromedaries. We affirm, with full knowledge 

 of the matter, that these animals are accustomed, not only as easily 

 as the horse to military music, hut more, that that which precedes 

 them is incomparably more noisy and frightening than ours. The 

 instruments which compose it are, the karine, which has the form of 

 the tuba, the ancient Roman horn, and which is eight feet long.* Its 

 sound is comparable only to the bellowing of a furious bulLf The 

 Jcoous, a large drum two feet in circumference; the halahan; the houl, 

 a common drum ; the nagarah, a kettle drum ; the cheipour, or najie, 

 a trumpet; the zourna, a hautboy; and the cymbals, zeng. All these 

 instruments are in twos and threes, and the band of the regiment con- 

 sists Tjf twenty-five zembouretchis, who beat and blow like madmen. J 

 Mirza-Mehdi relates, ''that Nadir commanded the nagahra kane 

 (military music) of his august army to rend the air with their mar- 

 tial strains, and took his departure on the sounding of the military 

 instruments, which resembled the trumpet of the resurrection," We 

 will not say, therefore, as the Englishman did: "that there was 

 something agreeable in this music." On the contrary, we will add, 

 that one must have Persian ears to endure the frightful uproar in 

 which the people of this country delight. They love beyond every- 

 thing the air of the Kouroglou, (son of the blindman,)^a very martial 

 song, which produces in them the same effect that our patriotic songs 

 do upon us. One of the passages which particularly electrifies them, 

 when words are added to the music, is the following : "Cease your 

 boasting! what to my eyes are thirty, sixty, or a hundred of your 

 soldiers ? What are your rocks, your precipices, and your deserts 

 under the hoof of my courser? In me behold the leopard of the 

 mountains and of the valleys." — (See the Oriental Review, transla- 

 tion from M. Chodzko.) 



GENERAL EEFLECTIONS.— IMPERFECTIONS OF THE ZEMBOUREKS.— DELAY IN 

 SERVING.— NEW PACK CARRIAGE PROPOSED.— INCREASE OF THE PERSON- 

 NEL.— FORMATION OF A NEW COMPANY OF ZEMBOUREKS.— MANCEUVRES. 



Before commencing this paper my intention had been to give only 

 a few sketches of the zemboureks, accompanied by slight superficial 

 details ; such was my plan, and probably I should not have departed 

 from it if I had not found such a mass of materials, which seemed to 

 draw me to a greater extension of my little treatise. If I have some- 

 times entertained the reader with matters relating to myself, it arises 



* There is in the national library, in the department of antiquities, a brass trumpet lm.l7 

 long, (about 40 inches,) brought from Colchis and presented to the library, in 1824, by M. 

 Garnba, the consul of France at Tillis. This is the true ancient trumpet now used in this 

 country ; the sound of it is very piercing, and can be heard a great distance. (Magasin 

 Fittoresque, Vol. XX, p. 36.) 



f The Persian musicians have succeeded in producing from this instrument a modulated 

 sound which resembles the pronunciation of the name of the king, Mehemed Shah, a harmo- 

 nious trick which is worth to tliem a generous gratuity. 



I One may imagine wliat such music can be when he hears that ihey have no written 

 music ; that each one knows the airs by ear only, and conseqr.entiy modulates tiiem according 

 to his own pleasure, endeavoring only to drown the noise of his neighbor by his own, in order 

 to produce himself tlie greatest possible effect. 



