THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by Roland Gorbold 



A BEAUTIFUL TRIBESWOMAN OF BAKHTIARI 

 LAND, WEST OF ISPAHAN 



She is a pure Iranian type, rare in these days. 

 Her costume is a negligee worn only in the 

 home. These tribeswomen are not secluded; 

 they ride and shoot like the men, and, of course, 

 wear a more practical costume, including bal- 

 loon -like trousers, when in the saddle. 



for the startling contrasts in the climate 

 of this unusual country. 



Water is the chief concern of the Per- 

 sian peasant. Wherever he can divert 

 the flow of a mountain stream or build a 

 crude canal from a well or spring, a small 

 portion of the desert becomes a paradise 

 and he prospers. Certain of these re- 

 gions are said to be among the most fer- 

 tile in the world, producing in abundance 

 not only the finest of wheat and barley, 

 but grapes, apricots, peaches, nectarines, 

 pomegranates, figs, and melons which are 

 unsurpassed among the fruits of the 

 Temperate Zone. Cotton and tobacco 

 thrive, and roses, as well as other flowers, 

 gloriously deserve the frequent associa- 

 tion of their names with that of Persia. 



A LAND OF CONTRASTS ROSE GARDENS 



AND DESERT 



It is the desert contrast that has made 

 the Persian poets sing of rose gardens 

 and of nightingales. Dwelling in a land 

 of barrenness, where the cooling shade of 

 trees, the refreshing greenness of vegeta- 

 tion, the life-giving productiveness of the 

 soil itself are possible only by struggling 

 years of human toil ; where only high 

 mud walls guard tiny groves of elms, 

 chinars, and poplars, so carefully reared 

 along priceless flower - edged water- 

 courses, from the encroaching waste 

 without, is it to be wondered at that they 

 cherish these artificial beauty spots and 

 idealize them as typical of heaven itself? 



The day is at hand, as one of the by- 

 products of the war, when Persia is to 

 begin to learn from British experts, not 

 only how to reclaim more desert land by 

 building better aqueducts and by throw- 

 ing barrages across mountain gorges to 

 store the surplus of the spring freshets, 

 but how to establish closer communica- 

 tion with the outside world and to de- 

 velop her great potential resources. 



Lacking in the energy, initiative, and 

 cooperative spirit necessary to develop 

 their country themselves, the Persians 

 have suffered from the jealous rivalry of 

 their neighbors, and from a seclusion 

 forced by nature, but belied by their cen- 

 tral geographical location, in all the re- 

 cent history-making disturbances in the 

 Near and Middle East. 



In spite of her position as a veritable 



