326 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



at a gallop, being in the saddle from sunrise to sunset, 

 except once when I continued until past midnight 

 as it was raining hard, and I was afraid least some 

 of the streams I had to ford should become impass- 

 able before morning. 



It would be impossible to give a full and connected 

 account of the journey without introducing the names 

 of the posting - stations, the distances, and other 

 details. I shall therefore merely enumerate briefly 

 the chief incidents characteristic of Persian travel. 

 There are no roads in Persia excepting round Teheran. 

 The path after leaving Tabreez is entirely strewn 

 with stones, which it is everybody's, and consequently 

 nobody's, business to remove, and so they have lain 

 there since the days of Cyrus. I also passed a chain 

 of deep wells connected by passages, of which the 

 mouths of some were situated in the track of caravans 

 and quite unprotected, though night- travel is an 

 ordinary thing, and the bones of animals which had 

 fallen into these death-traps could be seen deep down 

 below, washed by a stream which supplies Tabreez. 



A society for preventing cruelty to animals (like 

 the one in the island of Crete, which is so successful 

 amidst difficulties) would find a colossal work to be 

 done in Persia. The camels seemed to have a happier 

 time of it than the mules and donkeys. 



On more than one occasion before sunrise I met a 

 caravan of over five hundred camels marching in 

 strings of twenty, laden with goods for Tabreez and 

 Trebizond. The first and last camels of each string 



