10 
BANDITTI OF THE MOUNTAINS. 
species of attraction, and consequently has sustained some ter¬ 
rible attacks. Most have been made at the hours of rest; by 
which surprises, mine host told me, he had more than once occa¬ 
sion to defend the doors of his Anderoon. He also narrated, 
that about fourteen months ago, while in pursuit of a bear in the 
environs, two of these brigands in ambush fell upon him ; but 
being always on the alert against such accidents, his toofan 
(matchlock) and knife soon freed him from their grasp, and the 
neighbourhood from their depredations. This extraordinary ex¬ 
ploit may indeed be a Persian tale , and accordingly only half of 
it should be deemed the fact; however, the frequent necessities 
which do occur of trying a man’s bodily prowess, may encourage 
some belief in the victorious valour of this well-armed son of 
Mecca. During the twelve days of Dr. Sharpe’s illness, several 
travelling caravans were pillaged on the roads near us, and num¬ 
bers of the people killed or wounded. After one of these frays, 
I saw, at only a few yards from the walls of the village, eight un¬ 
fortunate travellers, covered with blood, lying under the shelter 
of a large tree, and begging piteously for water to slake their 
burning drouth. There was no want of hospitable compassion in 
the brethren of Iman Ismael, to their less holy countrymen ; and 
even the Frangy’s surgical bandages and balms were as frankly 
accepted as applied. The most desperate conflicts between the 
marauding tribes and travellers, usually take place a short way 
from the sacred village, in the dark and rocky gorge of a pass 
which conducts into a gloomy valley, along whose rugged depths 
lies the main road. Out of this valley, branch innumerable in¬ 
tricate defiles ; through the overshadowed avenues of which, the 
loaded mules are speedily conveyed from the sight of their dis¬ 
abled and wounded masters ; left, most probably, to perish with 
