A RIDE TO TEHERAN IN 1888. 327 



had attached to them a great copper bell. Such a 

 meeting in the early morning in the great desert 

 plains of Persia is most impressive, with the distant 

 clanging of the bells becoming louder as they ap- 

 proach, and the Jong unending rows of great beasts 

 stealing past with outstretched necks on their long 

 journey to the shores of the Black Sea. Some of the 

 drivers were asleep on mules in motion, in the most 

 wonderful attitudes, because nothing was discernible 

 to indicate a human being on the animal's back except 

 a shapeless heap, from each side of which a leg pro- 

 jected downwards. 



I had written out a vocabulary of useful words, but 

 beyond this was quite ignorant of the language, which 

 fact I found was really an advantage. At each 

 station I required fresh horses and a post-boy, or 

 chagird, to take them back again. This person fre- 

 quently fancied all the armed men we passed to be 

 robbers, and if any suspicious-looking individual 

 accosted me, what could I do but make signs that I 

 was deaf or unable to understand, and what could a 

 robber do with such an unpracticable victim ? And 

 so I travelled perfectly unmolested, though alone. 

 But there was another advantage in not being able 

 to speak Persian, for on reaching a posting- station I 

 could enter the stable and point to the two best- 

 looking horses it contained. The best are not wil- 

 lingly brought forth, and never before the poorest 

 animals have first been offered. But the persuasions 

 of the chapar bashi fell upon deaf ears. The stream 



