80 
BUSHIRE TO SHIRAZ. 
almost an impossible task to ascertain the ultimate and exact direction 
of our bearing from Daulakee to Khisht. However it was evident, that 
we had made a great deal of Easting, with a little Northing. The 
mountains rose around in most fantastical forms, their strata having 
their highest elevation towards the South, forming a dip of perhaps 
forty-five degrees. The soil is mostly of a soft crumbling stone, large 
fragments of which seemed just balancing at the brink of the precipice 
above, and appearing to require only a touch to impel them into the 
great chasms below. The passage of the river by our numerous party, 
and the winding of the horsemen and loaded mules in the mountain- 
passes, animated the whole of the dreary scenery around into the most 
romantic pictures. The only verdure which cheered the sameness of 
the glaring yellow of the mountain, was that of a few wild almond 
trees. 
Before we ascended to the plains of Khisht, a long string of match¬ 
lock men and horsemen (the Istakhall ) who came out to meet the 
Envoy, appeared on the brink of the precipice above us. As we 
ascended they fired a volley, the sound of which returned in repeated 
echoes through the mountains; and when we came into the midst of 
them, the horsemen begun their gambols; moving around us in all 
directions, stopping their horses, couching their long lances, throwing 
them, and then again galloping forwards. The footmen with their 
matchlocks made a charge into the plain, shouting as they advanced, 
as a representation perhaps of the ardour of their attack in real combat. 
When we approached our encampment, we were met by the Governor 
of Khisht himself, Zaul Khan, a man of remarkable appearance, 
without eyes, and with the fragment of a tongue, the rest of which he 
had forfeited during the troubles of Persia. He came riding on a mule 
conducted by a young Persian. But the most extraordinary part of 
his history is, that, notwithstanding his tongue is cut, he still talks intel- 
ligibly. Before, indeed, this operation was performed, he had such an 
impediment in his speech, that he was scarcely able to make himself 
understood; but the mutilation was fortunate, and his articulation 
