COURDISH SIMPLICITY. 
539 
and not an article omitted, the party could produce, for our ac¬ 
commodation and refreshment. Butter, bread, eggs, and ex¬ 
cellent pillau of fowl and rice, were set before us ; and the good 
humour and smiling faces of all around gave zest to the whole. 
For myself, I enjoyed the regale in every way. I found that 
sort of summer abode delightfully cool, the thick texture of its 
hair-cloth roof completely excluding the scorching effects of the 
sun; while the light fabric of the rush-woven walls, not only 
continued the shelter, but permitted a constant current of air to 
pass through freely. This was the first time I had tasted Cour- 
dish hospitality in their favourite tented field of summer. My 
visits, hitherto, had been to their winter stations, amongst em¬ 
battled rocks, or behind the pent-up walls of their villages ; and 
whether the gloomy terrors of nature kept astir all that was 
savage within them, or that the genial season itself was required 
to dissolve their rugged aspects into urbanity, I do not know ; 
but assuredly, I here saw nothing resembling the ferocious air, 
and sullen grimness, which marked the visages greeting me from 
tower and dell, in my last winter’s march from Sulimania to 
Tabreez. Here, men and animals seemed all happy and united. 
The whole assemblage attached to each family, meeting under 
one roof, enjoying the same shade, partaking the same pastime; 
children and poultry, dogs and lambs, all sporting together; 
while even young calves intruded their bright eyes from behind 
the matting, near which they were tied. The sides of the hills 
immediately around, were blackened by the deep shadows of 
their lowing mothers, with flocks of sheep and goats cropping 
the short herbage. 
The chief of this little horde, for it did not number more than 
ten or a dozen tents, would not permit his people to bring in the 
3 z 2 
