SHIRAZ TO BUSHIRE. 41 



strong arrack into the bargain. One sip, which I 

 took in the spirit of good-fellowship, sent the tears 

 gushing into my eyes, and I lay gasping on the 

 ground like a trout on a river's bank. The two 

 Swedes drank it like so much water. At length, 

 after many protestations of mutual friendship, we 

 bid the good doctor a final adieu. He returned to 

 his Persian home ; we turned our horses' heads to- 

 wards the village where we purposed remaining for 

 the night. The road led through a well-cultivated 

 plain, and heavy golden crops of the bearded wheat 

 waved like a sunlit ocean in the evening breeze. 

 To the right we could see the long lines of the 

 Mesjid-i-Verdeh gardens sweeping close up to the 

 base of the mountains that bound the valley on the 

 northern side. "\Ve rode about four miles to the 

 village of Koosan, a small place of about one hun- 

 dred houses. There was no caravanserai, so the 

 gholaum, who had ridden on in front, had prepared 

 for our occupation a small house at the corner of the 

 village. The inhabitants had, as a matter of course, 

 been summarily ejected. We found the family 

 huddled up together on a house-top adjoining. Poor 

 people ! they were evidently under the apprehension 

 that we should appropriate, or otherwise dispose of, 

 the household gods and provisions, which were all 

 scattered about in the rooms and yards just as they 

 had left them ; for they had been ordered to decamp 

 at a moment's notice by the ruthless gholaum. The 



