198 
THE GOURDS OF KERMANSHAH. 
tenance expressive of frank and amiable dispositions. The men 
have nothing of that suspicion regarding their women, which 
distinguish the Turks and Persians; hence their wives and 
daughters walk abroad in the security of innocence, without the 
great veil or chadre. Their only appendage which at all re¬ 
sembles such a covering, is a handkerchief hanging loose from 
the back of the head, which at will they can pull quite over the 
face, or allow it merely to shade the cheek. Their persons are 
enveloped in a long blue garment shaped like a shift, and opening 
low down the bosom, where it is partially closed with loops 
fastened to buttons, usually formed of pieces of money; an 
ornament which they affect in profusion. Their ears, too, are 
decorated with large silver rings, running through strings of the 
same. In the cottages, or at the tent doors, these women 
appear without restraint; and are as ready as any peasant girl 
in England, to pay to a stranger the usual simple duties of 
hospitality. Modest when maidens, and chaste as wives, in 
every respect they cultivate those vigorous habits in themselves, 
which produce an athletic race of children and set them a fear¬ 
less example. “ Our boys are to be soldiers,” they say, “ and 
they must learn to bear, and to dare every thing. We shew 
them the way.” 
Tuesday, September 30th, 1818. — We left Tackt-i-Bostan at 
six o’clock this morning, traversing the valley to the west. At 
a distance of about two miles from the sculptured rocks, the 
Kara-sou becomes pretty broad, having been augmented not 
far from thence by the influx of several streams, the most abun¬ 
dant of which is the “ fair and crystalline Shirene.” Historians 
tell of a striking scene that must have taken place near this spot. 
The pavilion of Khosroo Purviz was pitched on one of the banks 
