386 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by J. W. Cook 



A FUNERAL PROCESSION IN HAMADAN 



The closely veiled Persian woman in the 

 foreground has so far forgotten her modesty 

 in her curiosity to view the bier of the deceased 

 Persian dignitary as to lower a fold of her 

 domino and thus reveal a portion of her 

 countenance to public gaze. Hamadan is the 

 ancient Ekbatana, the home of Esther and 

 Mordecai. 



where — in the city, in the village, even 

 along the desert caravan trail. Here the 

 harassed business man or weary traveler 

 can refresh his careworn soul with a 

 glass of tea, a leisurely cigarette or water- 

 pipe, and a bit of light gossip or exchange 

 of current news with fellow-beings of 

 kindred spirit. 



The tea-house may be in external ap- 

 pearance anything from an adobe hut 

 with a few crude benches to the glorified 

 cafes of Lalehzar, but it always possesses 

 those unfailing essentials, a big, brass 

 Russian samovar, an adequate collection 

 of little tea-glasses, bright-colored sau- 

 cers, and filigree spoons, a bubbling hub- 

 ble-bubble or two for public use, and a 



genial atmosphere of camaraderie remin- 

 iscent, perhaps, of the obsolete American 

 bar-room. 



The ice factory is merely a mud wall, 

 two stories high instead of one, throwing 

 a cold shadow on a puddle at its northern 

 side in winter. The stored product is 

 neither crystal nor clean, but it serves to 

 cool many a refreshing glass of Persian 

 sherbet during the thirst-compelling dry- 

 ness of the withering summer's heat. 



PRIMITIVE ENGINEERING PROVIDES 

 TEHERAN WITH WATER 



The problem of food and water supply 

 for a city nearly as large as Washington, 

 D. C, without railway or steamship com- 

 munication, without modern machinery 

 of any kind, without even such primary 

 essentials as farm wagons and cast-iron 

 water pipes, has been solved very ingeni- 

 ously by the people of Teheran. The 

 water system especially is a marvel of 

 primitive ingenuity. 



The unusual topography of the plains 

 about Teheran always arouses the trav- 

 eler's curiosity. Row after row of earthen 

 craters, which look like series of gigantic 

 ant-hills or, perhaps, entrances to the sub- 

 terranean abodes of mammoth moles, 

 lead toward the mountains. These mark 

 the courses of the underground aque- 

 ducts, which bring the mountain well or 

 spring water a distance of from five to 

 ten miles to the city. 



After the source of supply is located, a 

 party of moqannis, or professional well- 

 diggers, sinks a line of narrow shafts, at 

 intervals of about one hundred yards and 

 often to a depth of more than one hun- 

 dred feet, all the way from high moun- 

 tain levels to the interior of the city, and 

 joins the bottoms of these shafts along a 

 stratum of impervious soil which will re- 

 tain the water. 



These primitive engineers join their 

 tunnels underground without even the 

 use of a compass and accomplish the 

 whole tremendous task with merely a 

 crude windlass, a bit of rope, and a few 

 small picks, shovels, and canvas sacks. 

 Thirty or more of these burrowed chan- 

 nels convey the entire water supply to 

 Teheran, including that used for irriga- 

 ting purposes. 



