" . 9a 
CHAPTER VL ^ 
On the 5th of May I was agreeably surprised to hear of the arrival of 
Sir William Ouseley from his tour to Darabgerd. At the same time 
a party of English serjeants, who had accompanied the embassy from 
Bombay to discipline the Persians, arrived from Shiraz, on their way 
to the capital; so that the deep solitude of the plain was at once en¬ 
livened by the activity of Europeans. 
I had already made up my mind to return to Shiraz, because I found 
such difficulty in getting my daily provisions, that every successive day 
produced a fresh dispute between my Mehmandar and the people of 
the villages. It will scarcely be credited when I say, that my party, 
which consisted of twelve men and fifteen horses and mules, had occa¬ 
sioned a scarcity both of food and fodder in the places near my resi¬ 
dence ; and when the above-mentioned friends were added to my com¬ 
pany, it became a matter of serious consideration how to provide food 
for us all. In the expectation of the passage of the embassy through 
his district, the Governor was already laying in a store of provisions 
for its supply. 
Sir William Ouseley and I returned to Shiraz on the 7th. We did 
not touch at Zergoon, but passing it on our left, crossed the hills at 
once to Baj-gah, where our party stopped to smoke. Looking into the 
caravanserai, we found seated among the rubbish three women, a man, 
and two greyhounds. The women had their faces uncovered, and soon 
informed us, (though they bore a most haggish appearance,) that they 
were koxdies, or courtezans by profession. They seemed to form one 
community with the rahdars. 
We reached our encampment at Shiraz, just as the Ambassador was 
making preparations to receive the first visit of ceremony from Mirza 
Zeky, who, as a mark of great distinction, had been dispatched direct 
from the King to be our Mehmandar. Mirza Zeky was a Mastofi^ or 
Under Secretary of State, and has the reputation of being one of the 
