ON THE HILL OF TACKT-I-SOLOMON. 
561 
universal use of the flat lintel throughout the country, until the 
invasion of that hero. The hill and the lake, and the ruins 
before us, our guide ascribed to King Solomon the Wise, the great 
comptroller of all the natural, and half the spiritual world ! But 
on my telling my Sian Kala mehmandar, that Solomon of Judea 
had nothing to do with building towns in Persia, he then said, 
“ the founder of this city must have been Shah Sulieman, the 
fifteenth caliph. And the reason he gave was, that he had him¬ 
self seen a grant of some villages in the neighbourhood, to which 
that sovereign’s seals were prefixed; one bearing his name, and 
the other something like a sun and moon. Plow far this may 
be true, I cannot vouch. 
While traversing the hill of Tackt-i-Solomon, I observed a 
rather singular style of encampment on the plain beneath, and 
was informed it belonged to a small division of the Shassivanni 
tribe; a rather fierce, and very populous race, who spread their 
wandering clans over the richest plains of Ardibile, thence along 
the valleys to near Rey ; and even so far southward as Fars, we 
. may meet their predatory hordes. Their tents are in the fashion 
of Tartars, circular and roomy ; and their characters, in many 
respects resembling the most savage of that people. Ferocious 
amongst themselves ; and ever on the watch for rapine, or to 
be ready in case of a sudden attack from the neighbourhoods 
their violence may have exasperated, their horses are always 
kept saddled. No animals are finer than those which belong to 
this ungovernable tribe ; indeed the breed is in such request for 
a Persian stud, that men of the first rank purchase their mares 
at any price. While we were making our observations amongst 
the ruins, a little party of the Shassivanni rode forward from 
their camp, and invited us down. I should have been glad to 
4 c 
VOL. II. 
