PEOPLE OF MAYAR. 
447 
The caravansary at Mayar, was one of Shall Abbas’s erections ; 
but, for want of due repairs, is sinking rapidly to decay ; a 
neglect, which, if not remedied in time, will be severely felt by 
future travellers, it being the only allotted place ol reception 
after the fatigues of so loner and arduous a march. On our 
arrival, the villagers made a demur to sending in the provisions 
which the King’s order required; but the mehmandar reminded 
the Ketkhoda (the magistrate of the hamlet) of two former 
visits which he had made to that spot, when the people had 
chosen to be refractory ; and the remembered consequences soon 
unlocked their stores. Perhaps I could not give a clearer view 
of the arbitrary use the subordinate officers of an Asiatic govern¬ 
ment make of their power; and of the dispositions with which 
certain instances of its prerogative are always hardly endured, 
though generally patiently acceded, by the natives, than by 
relating the two circumstances to which my unprincipled at¬ 
tendant referred. 
He had been ordered by government to accompany a detach¬ 
ment of Russian soldiers, in the royal pay, down to Shiraz, and 
see that they were amply provided during the march. At this 
village he found the doors barred, and every article demanded 
the people refused. He remonstrated, he threatened, but no 
compliance was intimated. A coujj de main was then decided, 
and he turned the soldiers loose. Without ceremony, they 
treated the whole scene a la militaire; burst open the doors of 
the houses, broke the heads of half the inhabitants, and, not 
only helped themselves to their due, but to whatever else they 
took a fancy to in the dwellings of the disobedient. 
But the result of this gentleman’s second exertion of official 
authority, was much more serious to these unhappy people. 
