260 A VISIT TO PERSIA. 
a nation of shopkeepers than of soldiers. The Persian opinion of 
Russia is the very opposite, her Power has been proved in several 
campaigns in which Persia has come off second best, while all along 
the northern frontier of Persia the once dreaded Turkoman has been 
completely crushed by the force of her arms. ‘The Cossack is seen at 
every point along the frontier and the many thousands of Persians who 
travel every year by the l'rans-Caspian railway to the shrines of Meshed 
see much of the military power of Russia which impresses them. 
Under such circumstances it is not to be wondered that the military 
greatness of Russia should be unquestioned, Russian troops completely 
shut in Persia from the north, whereas, except in the very south of the 
country, an English soldier has never been seen. 
