CRUELTY OF ZACKEE KHAN. 
457 
arcades soon after 8 o’clock in the morning; we had then 
marched about three farsangs from Ameenabad. In the room 
where my nummud was spread on the floor, I found the names 
of many preceding travellers written on the walls. Some of the 
oldest dates were, “ Riberra, 1641.” — “Lorenzo Visang, 1645.”— 
“A. M. 1653.” — and another, illegible, “1690.” 
This little valley, or rather bounding chasm, between the two 
most celebrated divisions of the Persian empire, Irak and Pars, 
has many interesting subjects of history attached to it, and some 
of horrible complexion. During the civil contests which fol¬ 
lowed the death of Kerim Khan, (the virtuous founder of the 
Zend dynasty, which perished in a few years after his demise, 
from the worthlessness of his heirs,) Zackee Khan, who had 
usurped the authority of the kingdom, and who was as execrable 
a tyrant as ever disgraced human nature, coming to Yezdikhast 
from Shiraz in his way to Ispahan, suddenly made a demand on 
the magistrates for a sum of money due to the government, 
which he accused them of secreting ; they denied the arrears, 
asserted they had no money concealed, and declared it beyond their 
power to collect the sum he required. On finding the unhappy 
citizens firm in the truth of what they said, without more ado, 
he ordered a certain number of them to be taken to a point of the 
rock near the window where he sat, and immediately hurled to 
the bottom of the precipice. He was obeyed ; and about eighteen 
or nineteen of the most respected characters in the town, were 
the next moment seen, lying a horrible mangled spectacle, dead, 
or expiring amongst the rocks beneath. One of the wretched 
victims escaped with his life, and still exists ; seeming a mi¬ 
raculous preservation, to one who looks up at the immense 
height of the rock where the sentence was executed. But, on 
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