602 Journal of a Tour through [Nov. 



II. — Journal of a Tour through Georgia, Persia, and Mesopotamia. 

 By Captain R. Mignan, Bombay European Regt. F. L. S. and 

 M. R. A. S. 



[Continued from page 590, vol. III.] 



After arranging our baggage, and paying the boatmen a tomaun, 

 which is equivalent to 12s. 4d., we directed our course due south, and 

 soon arrived at the gates of Mean dab or Meandow. On entering 

 the town, we passed through filthy lanes, bordered by mud walls ; 

 scrambled over ruined huts, and descended deep pits, that furnished 

 materials for new ones ; till at length we gained a lofty dilapidated 

 wall, enclosing the principal dwellings, and entering the gateway, 

 passed through a miserable bazar. We looked in vain for streets, 

 much less decent buildings, (a few ants' nests presented themselves,) 

 until we were conducted to the houses of some wealthy merchants — 

 these were most carefully concealed from view by high mud walls of 

 the most wretched appearance, and encircling them were the huts of 

 the poor artisans and cultivators. Although night was fast approach- 

 ing, no lights were seen in any quarter, except the bazars, which 

 were in fact, the only thoroughfares that deserved the name of streets. 

 We took possession of a large house, the property of one J afar 

 Ku'li Khan. Its rooms were capacious, its walls white-washed, and 

 what is very uncommon in Persia, its height was nearly one hundred 

 feet. This edifice was fast crumbling to decay, and upon its summit 

 great numbers of storks had built their circular nests of reed. The 

 natives of the place called them " Hdji Lag-lag," the former title, 

 from their making a yearly pilgrimage to the level countries during 

 the winter season, (yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed 

 time ; Jeremiah, viii. 7,) and the latter, from the loud clattering 

 sound made by its long bills. Although these birds are considered 

 unclean, (these are they which ye shall have in abomination among the 

 fowls, the stork and heron after her kind ; Leviticus, xi. 13, 19 ;) yet, 

 they are marked by qualities of an amiable nature, and so attached 

 to house-tops, they appear under no fear of being dislodged. Indeed 

 the natives entertaiu an idea that they bring a blessing to the 

 dwelling on which they build, and in Egypt, they are held as objects 

 of veneration. Bruck in his travels, remarks that it was a great 

 breach of order to kill any of these birds in Cairo, and Ali Bey 

 mentions an extraordinary establishment at Zez for the treatment of 

 lunatics : " it is very strange that great part of the funds has been 

 bequeathed by the wills of various charitable testators, for the express 



