PERSIAN CARAVAN SKETCHES 



The Land of the Lion and the Sun as Seen on a Summer 



Caravan Trip 



By Harold F. Weston* 



PERSIANS say, with a great feel- 

 ing of envy, that the man who has 

 seen the most of the world is the 

 greatest liar. So when I am asked to 

 tell "all about Persia," I generally ask if 

 I should not include Russia, too, having 

 been there just six hours. 



What counts most in enjoying, visual- 

 izing, or telling about the "romantic 

 East," or any strange place, is your power 

 of imagination. I can but bring together 

 a few faded petals ; the reader's imagina- 

 tion must arrange them and appropriately 

 spray them with attar of roses. 



Persia, for a surprising majority of 

 people in America, is not much more 

 definite than a hazy pink or green spot 

 swimming around India — "Oh, you 

 know, beyond Turkey." 



Persia suggests Omar Khayyam, gar- 

 dens and rugs, rugs remembered from 

 colorful magazine advertisements or 

 hasty glimpses into Fifth Avenue win- 

 dows. Many dusty books lie on library 

 shelves. All I propose to do is to offer 

 a few sketches in rough outline, which 

 may help to visualize Persia of today ; to 

 pin those green or pink spots onto the 

 map by a few vivid incidents, border them 

 with bleak mountain ranges, dot here and 

 there with crumbling palaces and cy- 

 pressed gardens, color with affable hosts 

 in the form of rotund chieftains or fugi- 

 tive brigands, enliven with mysterious 

 veiled ladies and equally hidden but more 

 numerous minute "critters" ; then sweep 

 it all over with dust, heat, decay, and 

 almost unbroken desert. 



Persia is almost as large as Germany, 

 France, Italy, and the British Isles com- 



* Accuracy in reproducing the vivid tints and 

 tones in Persian costumes, architecture, and 

 skies in the preceding color plates has been 

 obtained through the cooperation of Mr. Wes- 

 ton, who is an artist as well as an author. He 

 not only furnished color charts for all of the 

 illustrations, but eight of the photographs have 

 been colored by him. 



bined. It is an arid plateau from 3,000 

 to 7,000 feet high, seamed by snow- 

 capped mountains. The people are mostly 

 Aryan, but — but you can read all this in 

 any encyclopedia. So we will start in 

 the good old-fashioned way. 



IN THE BEGINNING 



Once upon a time there was an armis- 

 tice, and two young Americans, who 

 since '16 had been with the "Y" in Meso- 

 potamia, conceived the idea of crossing 

 Persia by caravan. The British military 

 authorities gave the casual information 

 that the 2,000 brigands still in possession 

 of the one main caravan route through 

 central Persia might have something to 

 say about it, though the British were 

 sending assistance to the Persian Gov- 

 ernment to round them up. That was 

 naturally the straw that led the camel to 

 drink, and by May we had left Bagdad 

 with permission to travel on the British 

 military motor convoys through Kurdis- 

 tan to the Caspian. 



A Kurdish lad was obtained as a serv- 

 ant, some emergency rations, a sixty- 

 pound tent, which was never used except 

 to be reviled (by Persian muleteers, of 

 course), and various other incidentals, 

 such as medicines, camera films, and cash. 



A Sir Somebody wrote about his trip 

 through Persia, that he had uselessly car- 

 ried two articles — a revolver and a large 

 box of insect powder. In both cases he 

 sighed, "Of what use is one against so 



many 



t\" 



Yea, verily ; but he who would 



venture into the land of "the lion and the 

 sun," let him go well armed with a goodly 

 supply of patience and faith, faith that 

 all is the will of God. no matter what 

 happens : water to drink in which count- 

 less pilgrims have performed perfunctory 

 ablutions ; mules that are to come to- 

 morrow, you wait, but, "Inshallah" (if 

 God wills it), there will be another to- 



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