VISIT TO PERSEPOLIS. 
69 
sufficient quantity of cattle for the conveyance of my baggage, we 
departed from our encampment on the 26th April. 
It was our intention to reach Persepolis in one stage; but as the 
baggage cattle in the Spring are fed upon nothing but the new green 
corn, and cannot support long marches, we were obliged to stop at 
Zergoon. About three miles from Shiraz we passed by Kalaat Pousban, 
a spot marked by a few willow trees, and so called from its being the 
place to which the Prince comes to meet and be invested with kalaats, 
or dresses of honour, which the King sends him from time to time, 
and particularly on the occasion of their great festivals. Nearly one 
half of the few trees that it possessed were withered, from the severe 
cold of the preceding winter. Excepting at this place, and at Baj-gah, 
a little farther on, there is nothing like a shrub of any consequence, 
much less a tree, to be seen. Mountains of the most arid surface, and 
most capriciously formed strata arise on all sides, without any thing 
to relieve the eye from that constant glare which the sun and clear 
atmosphere of this climate throws upon them. It is not surprising 
then that the Persians are all ecstasy at a little verdure, and that they 
enjoy with such relish what nature has so sparingly given to them. 
Kalaat Poushan and Baj-gah perhaps, may boast of about twenty trees 
between them, of which there is only one that is entitled, from its size, 
to be called such, and that is an ancient sycamore at the latter place. 
Here is a Caravanserai half in ruin, no doubt the same spoken of by 
Thevenot, who passed it in ,, February, 1666. Facing' its gate is 
the tree above mentioned ; and near to the tree a square basin, into 
which runs a small stream that takes its rise in the mountains close by, 
which I was told was the Rokhnabad, celebrated by Hafiz. Here is a 
station of rahdars, or toll-gatherers, appointed to levy a toll upon 
hajilehs, or caravans of merchants | and who, in general, exercise 
their office with so much brutality and extortion, as to be execrated by 
all travellers. The police of the highways is confided to them, and 
whenever any goods are stolen, they are meant to be the instruments 
of restitution ; but when they are put to the test, are found to be 
inefficient: none but a man in power can hope to recover what he has 
