260 
TEHERAN TO TABRIZ. 
• * ■ $, 4 V 
supplied from the neighbouring villages, and from the population of 
A qjuo 
Aderbi&ian. The Ark or citadel is already built: it is situated close to 
the King’s pleasure-houses, N. 50 W. from the tomb. The King 
and all his troops encamp about June in the plains for many miles 
around. 
• *' 
r V< .. S' • 
There are an immense number of a peculiar species of rats in the 
plain, which dig themselves holes in the ground. Our people caught 
several: they have the squeaking of a musk rat, and sit on their hind 
legs; I caught one and took a drawing of it; it was big with young, 
and had four teats on each side; in colour it was an ugly dun, and in 
length measured fifteen inches from the head to the tail: it had five 
claws on both fore and hind feet, and long nails at the end. Its head 
was flat with a black nose, large black eyes, and an orifice for the ear 
without any skin to cover it; its tail was bushy, and spreading at 
^ i \ . f '• 
the end.* 
15th. On quitting Sultanieh we stopped at the King’s pleasure-house, 
which is built on the tape or hillock, about three quarters of aTnilA 
from the present village. It consists of four divisions, all enclosed 
within walls, and raised with materials from the demolished structures 
4 
of the ancient city. The first contained a suit of apartments for 
women; the second was a polyangular building, as yet unfurnished 
(crowned at the top by a small dome) surrounded by a railing, and called 
like so many others, Koola-frangee. This, as we are told, was built after 
a drawing given to the King by one of the Gentlemen of the French 
Embassy. From this we went through a long arched and gloomy 
passage to the King’s Khalwet or private room. Here there is a picture 
of his Majesty killing a stag in the chase, and a portrait of each of 
his principal sons, painted in fresco on the walls. From this we went 
to the fourth, which is the Dewan Khoneh , and opens upon the whole of 
* It appears to be the Earless Marmot of Pennant, p. 135; the Arctonays c& 
Linn^us, p. 145, 
