MEXIOBEGGY. 
454 
women, and children ; some on foot, others on horseback, mules, 
or asses. The dead too formed part of the procession ; several 
being slung, in their coffins, on the sides of the beasts of burthen, 
in the same way with the similar translations near the sacred 
precincts of Kom. But in this caravan to Kerbela, there were 
two or three corses of great men, travelling to take their last 
repose by the side of the brave and virtuous Hossein ; and these 
bodies were conveyed in tack-i-ravans, (a sort of palanquin,) at¬ 
tended by groups of horsemen. Amongst the illustrious remains, 
were those of Jaffier Khan, a prince who once governed a fine 
district in India ; and who, from the extraordinary noble qualities 
of his heart* and as rare cultivation of mind, was held in high 
respect by all our countrymen in that part of the East. 
Our line of march continuing, as usual, south 20° to 25° east, 
we came up to Mexiobeggy, once a flourishing village, but now 
exhibiting only a few huts; though sufficient to contain about 
twenty or thirty families, drawn round the walls of a large men- 
zil, which the mother of the Prince-Governor of Shiraz has 
erected there for the convenience of herself and her royal son, in 
their passages between Teheran and his own capital. Mexio¬ 
beggy is about four farsangs from Koomishah; in measured 
distance, fifteen British miles. Here the mountains, that bounded 
the wide vale we were in, to our left, took a sweep due east, 
opening before us a vast sterile plain ; the distant limits of which 
were faintly seen, in forms like light clouds, through the deep 
haze of heat. A ride of three more farsangs, over this burning 
waste, brought us to a village called Ameenabad, thinly peopled, 
and without a vestige of cultivation near it. The inhabitants 
are an idle, unprincipled race; apparently preferring want to 
the comforts of industry, while agriculture is to pay any tax to 
