1897.] 
R. Barn — The Bakhtiari Hills. 
173 
man, and conld read a little French. Daring my stay in Persia I only 
met two Persians who knew any English. We asked the Sartip why 
they preferred French, and he said that it was because more of the 
Europeans, especially Russians and Germans, who visited Persia, knew 
it. He expressed a high opinion of the English methods of Govern¬ 
ment, and said that if we held Persia the province of Arabistan would 
be as fertile as Egypt. When the conversation came upon Afghanistan, 
and what would happen there when the Amir dies he said “ Urus 
‘ sauvage ’ ast, Inglis ‘ civilise.’ ” His view of the Russian adminis¬ 
tration in Central Asia was that though on the whole good, it was 
needlessly cruel, and the people were treasuring up their wrongs, while 
there was no freedom for Muslims to follow their religion, and Af gh ans 
being a free people would resent this. A suggestion that in this 
quality they resembled the Bakhtiaiis pleased him. He thought that 
a struggle between the Russians and English was inevitable, but that 
the battle ground would be Persian more especially if the Russians 
tried an advance on Herat. A Sassanian coin and engraved seal were 
presented to me by the Sartip. 
November 4th. As we both had fever and ague we had to halt for the 
day, most of which was spent in receiving visits. Major Sawyer appears 
to have made a great impression on the people, and several men spoke 
of him. The sons of Isfandiar Khan and the Sartip, each aged about 
13 came to see us. Like most Persian boys they were very grave and 
self-possessed, but seemed keen sportsmen; they had learnt a little 
French in Teheran. The other brothers of the Ilbegi whom we saw 
did not appear such good specimens. One of them came both evenings, 
and begged some brandy. We obtained a box of the sweetmeat called 
‘ gez ’ here. It is prepared from the droppings of a tree also called 
4 gez,’ a kind of tamarisk, extremely like, if not the same as, the Indian 
farash. 
November 5th. The Sartip told off a “tufangci” to accompany 
us, and informed us that while we were in the hills we were the guests 
of the Ilbegi. The road led down to a river called the Rua Rud, which 
illustrates admirably the method of irrigation in these hills. It differs 
from that in other parts of Persia, as the surface water is so plentiful 
that the underground channels with qanats leading to the surface are 
not necessary. On each side of the river the soil is terraced, the fields 
as a rule being oval in shape, and rising one above another. At the 
head of the valley a small canal takes out of the river on each side, 
and water is taken from these as required. After fording the river 
we began to ascend again. A curious flower, sometimes yellow and 
sometimes purple, growing out of the stony ground with no leaves, 
J. i. 23 
