458 
FARS, PARS, OR PERSIS. 
the tyrant proceeding to issue commands of still more wanton 
and atrocious cruelty, his own followers conceived so instant an 
indignation against him, that a conspiracy was formed almost 
by the interchange of looks, and before the setting of another 
sun he perished by their daggers. This catastrophe happened 
about the year 1779. Atafarsang’s distance from Yezdikhast 
the great southern road to Shiraz separates into two routes, one 
goes south-west through Deggerdoo, the other eastward by 
Shulgastan ; the latter was to be my road. 
June 7th. At four o’clock this morning, under a sky, whose de¬ 
parting pearly tints, tinged towards the horizon with a hue to which 
earthly colours can give no name, seemed, in the language of the 
East, “ opening the curtains of Paradisewe began to ascend 
the acclivity of the southern side of the valley of Yezdikhast, 
whose sinuous course through the hills marks the limits of 
Irak Ajem, the ancient Media; dividing it from the present 
province of Fars or Pars, which, under the more classic ap¬ 
pellation of Persis, once comprised what we might call Persia 
Proper, the original kingdom of Cyrus ; and which, when he 
united Media and other realms to his crown, gave its name to 
the whole empire. The province of Fars, as it now stands, is 
bounded on the north and north-west, by Irak Ajem and 
Louristan, and a small portion of Khuzistan ; on the east by 
Kerman, whose desert is so well known ; a part of its frontier, 
to the south, takes in Laristan, the ancient kingdom of Lar ; 
and to the south-west it is bounded by the Persian Gulph, the 
Sea of Oman, or Erythrean sea, which extends up the country 
nearly to Gumberoon; a noted British mercantile settlement in 
the time of Kerim Khan. 
Having completely cleared the valley of Division, we found 
