366 
THE PYL^E CASPIiE. 
three latter personages were to take charge of my horses and 
mules. Every man was well mounted, on the noble steeds of 
the country ; myself only excepted, who usually rode the “ good 
horse” I had bought of the Tcherkasses, just before I crossed 
the Caucasus. Our baggage was on mules ; no wheeled carriage, 
since the scythed chariots of old, having any thing to do in this 
equestrian land. Our accoutrements too, were in perfect cha¬ 
racter with this cavalier-appearance; every man being armed 
with carbines, pistols, swords and daggers; which we disposed 
with no small ostentation, having been made to understand, that 
the farther we should journey from the immediate personal in¬ 
fluence of the Shah, the less and less would we find the execu¬ 
tion of his laws against robbers able to reach their objects ; 
and, therefore, the greater the show of defence, the more se¬ 
curely were we likely to travel. 
I quitted Teheran soon after breakfast, about 9 o’clock, under 
the auspicious omen of a beautifully brilliant morning, with a 
gentle breeze from over the white brow of Demawand, which 
delightfully cooled the air. In the range of mountains which 
overlook the city, and on whose storied heights I now turned 
my back, is situated the celebrated Pylee Caspias. It lies in a 
direction north-east from the town, and differs in almost every 
point, from the description which Pliny gives of it, in lib. vi. c. 17. 
The pass is extremely narrow, and, evidently, would never have 
been a pass at all, had not the labour of man opened a way for 
nearly two hundred yards, by hewing through the solid rock. 
Its appearance is very tremendous. In travelling towards it 
from Teheran, the distances are these: by a mountain-road 
immediately behind the city to the north-east, you ride eleven 
farsangs to the village of Demawand; then curving to the south- 
