54 
PEERA ZUN. 
before only saw ruin and death before them, we shall not be surprised 
at the rapid manner in which the reputation of our doctors spread. 
On the 4th of April we proceeded onwards, and crossed the difficult 
mountains of the Dochter without accident. On the ascent over the 
Peera Zun, which is the highest part of the mountainous range, from 
an eminence a little distance from the high road, a most extensive view 
breaks upon the sight; for the five different ranges of mountains that 
we had ascended, in succession, on our journey from Bushire, are to 
be distinguished with great accuracy; and beyond those is seen the 
plain of the Dashtistan ; and last of all, the sea faintly defined in the 
horizon. 
All the region of the Peera Zun, Desht-e-arjun, and its vicinities, 
when we crossed it, wore an appearance of winter, or at most of the 
first dawning of spring. In many recesses of the Peera Zun the snow 
was on the ground; and on the plain of Desht-e-arjun the corn had 
not yet made its appearance. 
As we generally commenced our journey about two hours before 
sunrise, the cold of the morning was very piercing, and incommoded 
us more sensibly because succeeded by a hot sun, the opposite actions 
of which produced on most of our party swelled and chopped lips and 
faces. There were few Persians with us who recollected in the climate 
a cold so severe as that which had prevailed during the last winter. It 
destroyed a great quantity of the fruit trees of Shiraz, and appears to 
have been most fatal to the orange trees. 
At Desht-e-arjun there is a hole in the mountain, which the Persians 
believe possesses the quality of deciding legitimacy of birth. The 
epithet of haram zadeh^ (unlawfully begotten,) is nearly the most 
odious that can be given to a Persian, one which easiest excites his 
wrath, and therefore in their quarrels they constantly recur to it, as a 
great means of irritation. One of their stories is, that a corpulent man, 
of larger circumference than the hole, once presented himself to pass 
through it, in order to ascertain his legitimacy, when the sagacious rock 
yielded him an easy passage; but that a thin man, who came on a like 
