MAMACENNI. 
47 
reached Borazjoon from Alichangee, a march of twenty-four milesj 
several of the English soldiers, to whom the climate was quite new, 
fell ill, and were bled. At Borazjoon the Governor returned to Bush- 
ire, for we here met the Prince’s Mehmandar, who assured us that 
the delay in his arrival had not originated with himself, but had pro¬ 
ceeded from his having been obliged to accompany the Prince on an 
expedition against the Mamacenni, who, by their activity and courage, 
had become quite formidable in the fastnessess of their mountains. 
Their principal haunts are the mountains in the vicinity of the Kaleh 
Sefid and the Kaleh itself, an almost inaccessible rock, which-com¬ 
mands a pass leading into Ears. Their numbers at the present day are 
reckoned at ten to twelve thousand houses. They have a tradition, 
that they are the descendants of Rustam, the Persian hero, and pride 
themselves greatly upon their ancient origin. Two of their principal 
tribes are indeed called the Rustamee and the Zaulee; and as the feats 
of these personages are related at full length in the Shah Nam eh of 
Ferdousi, they read that book with avidity; and it is a common occur¬ 
rence to hear some of the lowest of them reciting passages from it with 
great rapture and enthusiasm. 
The history of this people excites the more interest, from the 
account given in Quintus Curtius'-^ of a people, bearing the very same 
name, who made an obstinate resistance to the progress of Alexander 
in the East, and who in fact were one of the causes which stopt his 
career in Tartary, The position of their city was near Cyropolis, which 
occupied the site of Cogend f; yet although they lived in cities, whilst 
the modern Mamacenni chiefly live in tents, and although the former 
were in Tartary and the latter in Ears, it is not impossible that the one 
may be descendants of the other; because we know how common in 
the east is the transposition of whole tribes from one region to another. 
The Jews were removed to Babylon and Media; Hyrcanians were to be 
* Lib. 7 » ^'b. 6 . ; also se lib. 9 . ch. 7 « 
f See d’Anville’s Anc. Geo. 2. v. 70. 
