40 THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE EAST. 



living together. Great animosity prevails between these two* 

 sects in India, also on the day on which the Shias expose- 

 the Tabut ( coffin ) in procession. In Cashmere, on these 

 occasions, the Mahomedans burn each others' houses and 

 shawl manufactories. From Kermansha we went to Bagdad,, 

 with a caravan carrying several embalmed dead bodies of 

 Persians to Kerbela, their sanctuary. 



Persia is a high plain, diversified by ranges of hills and 

 desertSi It was in the month of August that we were on 

 our journey, and the air was so bitterly cold on the morning 

 of our setting out, that our very teeth chattered ; I recollect- 

 ed that at home they call these the dog-days. We arrived 

 at Bagdad, v/here M. De Turk left me, as he was resolved to 

 return to Paris by land vioi Tocat and Constantinople, in 

 order to take with him some Arabian horses ; a speculation, 

 by the way, which proved by no means lucrative. A short 

 time after his leaving me, I received some good news from 

 Lahore, through a Persian who had been in the service of 

 General Avitabile, which induced me again to attempt going 

 there at the commencement of the favourable season, i, e., 

 the early part of the winter ( 1829 ). I felt the more inclined 

 to do so, as the plague was already raging at Mosul, and the 

 inhabitants of Bagdad were fearful that it might extend 

 as far as their own city, a thing which occurred soon after. 

 In the year 1828, there had been at Mosul and its environs, 

 a famine, in consequence of the crops failing, and numerous 

 families went down the Tigris to settle at Bagdad, selling, 

 their children for a mere trifle, owing to the want of means 

 to support them. I myself sav/ a beautiful Christian girl 

 purchased for twenty grush ( four shillings ). Scarcely had 

 I left Bagdad when the plague broke out, and this scourge 

 was followed by an inundation. A war, previously noticed, 

 also broke out, during which Dohud Pasha was conducted 

 as a prisoner to Constantinople, 



My only companion was a faithful servant, called Antun,,, 

 a Christian, whom I brought with me from Bagdad, and 

 v/ith whom, after having passed through Bassora, and Mos- 

 cat, I arrived at Beuder-Karatshi in Sind. From Karatshi^j 



