612 Journal of a Tour through [Now. 



blazing fire in the Sheikh's house, where some excellent coffee was 

 ready to be offered. I have often wondered how these people could 

 have lived before the discovery of this beverage, the champaigne of 

 the East. In the most desolate Khan it is handed round, and if you 

 refuse to carry it to your lips, you are considered to be displeased 

 with your accommodation, or at the behaviour of your attendants. 



In the room next to the one we occupied, three Turks were repos- 

 ing. In the course of the evening they requested I would share a 

 pipe with them. After smoking together for some time, one of them 

 said, " We have just arrived from Bagdad, and are travelling Chupper 

 (post) to Tabriz. Where are you going ? Have you got any money ? 

 Are you a Russian spy ? Perhaps you wish to enter Daoud Pasha's 

 service. He has already a Feringhi (alluding to Mr. Littlejohn, 

 formerly Adjutant of H. M.'s 2nd or Queen's Royal Regiment,) 

 instructing the half- starved Fellahs how to put themselves into a 

 number of odd positions." One of his companions interrupted himi 

 saying, " He is not a Feringhi, but one of the Ingrese from Hind, 

 and a sharp fellow too ; though I don't like to see these changes, or 

 we may all be turned into the great desert." I asked what had 

 occurred at Bagdad ? The Turk raised his head, and without ceasing 

 to attend to a large coffee-pot which was on the fire, began, " By 

 mv soul, Daoud Pasha, our master, will soon have no more Tchoco- 

 dars ; he prefers the Giaours to us already ! What shall we do if the 

 Pashas and Aghas are able to eat us as they like ? We must all fly 

 to these mountains, and become Kurds ! Our Fellahs are all discon- 

 tented, the taxes of the unbelievers have been increased, and perhaps 

 even Mussalmans will have to pay them. Those Muscovite dogs have 

 revolted against the Sultan, because he would not make their Sheikh 

 a Sultan also. Even the Ingrese will soon compel the true-believers 

 to chastise them, as I have heard say they now refuse to pay tribute, 

 and even Mahmoud himself is more like them than a true believer. 

 He likes their ways better than his own. God is great ; he knows if 

 these changes are for the better : and as to that son of a dog 

 Muhammed Ali Pasha, who has done it all, may Allah grant that 

 his eyes may burst." " Inshallah, Inshallah," shouted his companions, 

 who considered their friend's speech a very eloquent one. 



On our quitting Bannah, the temperature became more moderate, 

 the country was hill and dale, and the whole one continued coat of 

 verdure. From hence the sloping sides of the mountains were 

 covered with oak trees, and to us, who had been accustomed to the 

 arid hills and mountains of Persia, it was a luxurious prospect. The 

 road afterwards wound through wild and rocky defiles in the moun- 



