London
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1876
108
>distance of three miles from the town, a horseman appeared, sent from
Shiraz by the Karaen's son to receive us, and bringing a welcome packet of
letters. A little further on an extraordinary procession met us, as istikbal
or cortege of welcome.
After the usual train of horsemen came a lot of men with kettledrums and
trumpets, headed by a professional jester. Then followed a band of singers, and
then a miscellaneous crowd of ragamuffins. At every two or three hundred yards,
an unfortunate sheep was brought forward, swiftly decapitated, and its bead
carried across the road. Tall glass vases of flowers with thin necks were held
in the air at intervals, and broken with a sharp tap of a knife. All the time
the drums were beating, the trumpets braying, as only Persian trumpets can, the
jester making jokes, not always the most decent, while an unfortunate poet was
trying to recite an ode in praise of somebody. At every turn more people were
added to the crowd, till at last we were attended to the door of the house
prepared for us by the whole male population of Niris, and a large proportion
of the female. This is the good old-fashioned way of receiving a grandee, only
now kept up in out-of-the-way parts. Before the Kajar times dancinggirls were
added to the show ; but this is strictly forbidden nowa-days.
Niris is chiefly remarkable from having been the head-quarters of Babism, that
extraordinary heresy which bade fair at one time to revolutionise Persia. The
persecutions to which those suspected of participation in the forbidden
mysteries of the Bib were subjected half depopulated Niris, and the famine,
from which it suffered considerably the first year, drove many of the remaining
inhabitants to seek their fortunes elsewhere. It has three parishes, surrounded
by very pretty gardens of fruit, walnut, and chinar trees, with here and there
a cypress or palm. The lake is distant about seven miles to the north-west.
After a day's halt to renew our extra carriage, we left in the evening of the
3rd June, with most of the spare baggage carried on asses. We spent the night
twelve miles from Niris, on the borders of the lake, and went on the next
morning early to Khir, a large village on a stream flowing from the hills. Here
we breakfasted in a garden with a magnificent avenue of chinars: and after
breakfast held a consultation with the elders of the place as to our onward
movements.
109
The road usually followed to Shiraz leads along the south shore of the
lake to the Kolvar or Kurbar district. It is flat and safe, but in the summer
is infested with gad-flies to such an extent as to render it dangerous to
horses. Moreover, we were told that it would be difficult to find asses, which
we were only able to hire from village to village. The other road passes over
the hills to Sarbistan, in the Shiraz valley, and though comparatively free
from flies, was said to be infested with thieves of the Baharlu and Kashkai
tribes. After due consideration, I resolved to take the latter, and we started
off with fresh asses the same afternoon for Rohnis, the first stage. The lake
opposite Khir is at its narrowest, being barely a mile across. In summer a man
can wade to the other side. The water is not so salt as that of the Shiraz
lake, which receives several springs of brine, but is too much so for fish,
which exist only at the mouth of the Bandani river, its main feeder. Passing a
gap in the lofty limestone cliffs bordering the lake on its south side, we
entered a wide valley running west, at the other extremity of which lies the
town of Istabonat or Savonat, and the ancient fort of Irij or Ij. After a
pleasant ride through a green valley bounded by high cliffs to the south,
called the Kuh Tudah, we arrived at Rohnis, where the Katkhuda, a surly
ruffian, would hardly take the trouble to get us a house.
Eleven miles the next morning over a desert plain covered with wild liquorice
brought us to the pass of Tang-i-Karim, shortly after passing which we halted
in a garden. A little way off under the hill is a deep clear pool in the rocks
full of enormous carp. Its water is said to remain always at the same level. It
is called the Atash Kadah, or I place of fire,' presumably from a fire temple
having existed there, though there are now no traces of it. Three farsakhs to
the south of Tang-i-Karim lies the town of Fasa, one of the most prosperous
towns in Fars, and the first place in the Garmsir or hot country, whose limit
seems to be that of the date-palm bearing fruit.
The most dangerous stage of the journey was now before us. A reiving party of
Baharlu, a hundred strong, had carried off several hundred sheep and attacked a
village in the plain the night before; and a baud of Kashkais was said to be
holding the pass to Sarvistan, the next village on our road.
The heat during the day was now becoming oppressive to man and beast, but I
determined to wait for broad daylight before going on.