328 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



of words was without effect and the desired horses 

 were saddled. (Moral when you travel take good 

 care to be ignorant of the language of the country.) 

 The Persian lash for horses is the severest and most 

 formidable instrument of the kind I have ever seen. 

 Usually the post-horses will not move unless you have 

 one. But it is not necessary to use it. Possession 

 suffices. 



I spent the fourth night after leaving Tabreez at 

 the large town of Zingan, which I reached after dark, 

 riding for miles through its closed and deserted 

 bazaars like railway tunnels. It is celebrated for 

 its fruit and for its enormous onions. The next 

 station is Sultanieh, on a flat plain said to be the 

 coldest in Persia. The Shah has a summer palace 

 here, and there is a ruined mosque or tomb, visible 

 for an enormous distance. 



On the evening of the sixth day I rode into the 

 large town of Casvin, where a fine hotel has been 

 built by the government for the accommodation of 

 travellers. There is no such thing as this hotel even 

 at the capital, and it is the only one of the kind I 

 found in Persia. Here I remained a day to rest. A 

 road has been made from here to Teheran, a distance 

 of one hundred miles, across a flat plain along the base 

 of a high mountain range, of which the highest point 

 is Demavend, close to Teheran itself. And what a 

 road ! Covered with stones and boulders of all sizes, 

 varied by holes and an occasional ditch for irriga- 

 tion. 



