TEHERAN TO TABRIZ. 
267 
such an inroad, which is indeed the privilege of every officer of govern- 5 
ment. I was quite vexed one day (when a poor man came and in- 
treated the Persians to take their horses out of his field, for that its 
produce was his sole subsistence) to see the inhumanity with which 
they treated him; and, after having administered a few blows to his 
shoulders, compelled him to hold their horses as they were eating his 
own property before his face. 
At about half past nine o'clock, and about fifteen miles from Auk-kend , 
we came to the banks of the Kizzil Ozan. The stream runs from West to 
East, in a bed of about two hundred yards in breadth, which was then 
in a great measure dry. It rises in the mountains of Gerustan y about 
five days journey from MiaunSh , and flows into the Caspian near Resht . 
We crossed it on a bridge, which appeared a very ancient structures 
and is now falling fast to decay. 
It has three principal arches, the one to the W. is modern compared 
with the other part of the structure, having been restored by Acka 
Mahomed Khan; as a small inscription on the new buttress inti- 
mates. The original bridge is attributed to Shah. Abbas; but, from 
its structure, which does not resemble that of the Seffis , and from an 
inscription in the Cnjick character ( which is worked in brick all around 
the principal arch) and another in a square on one of the old buttresses,, 
I should suspect that it is much more ancient, and must be referred 
indeed to the earliest ages of Mahomedanism. When on the borders 
of the stream I was too distant to see the characters distinctly enough 
to copy them. 
We commenced the ascent of the Coflan Kou immediately on quitting 
the river, and w~ere just one hour in gaining its greatest height, and half 
an hour in descending into the plain on the opposite side^ The chain 
of mountains, of which this forms a part, is the proper boundary of 
Aderbigian. Near the bridge on the right, in ascending the mountain* 
there is a singular rock which has been fortified with walls and turrets,, 
probably coeval with the bridge. This also, however, appears to have 
been restored in some parts by a modem hand, as in front there is a 
m m 2 
I: 
P 1 
