SHIKAZ TO BUSHIRE. 57 



be Timoor himself, in gala costume, is seen sitting on 

 a chair, which, by the way, is a very rickety-looking 

 affair, and all on one side ; and some one, whether 

 man or woman it is difficult to decide, is handing 

 him a kalioon : the attendants, three in number, 

 with their arms duly folded across then 1 chests, stand 

 ranged at the side. The delineation of this scene 

 had certainly no claims to high art ; but, looking at 

 the size of the figures, and the large portion of the 

 cliff that must have been scarped away, it was 

 evident that our worthy friend Timoor had spared 

 no pains. In the distant part of the valley to the 

 west, the blue waters of a lake were discernible. 

 Some of our people affirmed that it was a lake of 

 brackish salt water ; others, again, said it was sweet 

 water. I inclined to the former opinion, as there 

 were no villages to be seen on its shores. The name 

 it went by was the Durreea Per-i-shoon. As we ap- 

 proached Kauzeroon, we rode through fields of corn 

 extending right across the valley. The harvest had 

 commenced, for the greater part of the heavy crops 

 stood in sheaves. Here we saw the first date-trees 

 since we had left, twelve months ago, the plain 

 around Baghdad. Their presence warned us of our 

 approach to the fierce heats of the sea-level. They 

 cannot live in the high table-lands of Persia. There 

 the snow and ice of winter kills them. We passed 

 under the grey stone walls of the town, and took up 

 our quarters in a small summer-house, at an angle of 



