Gerome
Also Carried A Pair Of Bags, Containing, In Addition To His Modest
Wardrobe, Our Stores For The Voyage - Biscuits, Valentine's Meat Juice,
Sardines, Tea, And A Bottle Of Brandy; For, With The Exception Of Eggs
And Persian Bread, One Can Reckon Upon Nothing Eatable At The Chapar
Khanehs.
There is an excellent European store shop at Teheran, and had
it not been for limited space, we might have regaled on turtle soup,
aspic jellies, quails, and _pate de foie gras_ galore throughout
Persia.
Mr. R. N - - , an _attache_ to the British Legation at Teheran,
is justly celebrated for his repasts _en voyage_, and assured me that
he invariably sat down to a _recherche_ dinner of soup, three courses,
and iced champagne, even when journeying to such remote cities as
Hamadan or Meshed, thereby proving that, if you only take your time
about it, you may travel comfortably almost anywhere - even in Persia.
[Footnote A: The word _Demavend_ signifies literally "abundance of
mist," so called from the summit of this mountain being continually
wreathed in clouds.]
[Footnote B: A pipe similar to the Turkish "hubble-bubble," wherein
the tobacco is inhaled through plain or rose water.]
[Footnote C: Harem.]
[Footnote D: A badge of royalty in Persia.]
[Footnote E: A stringed instrument played in the same way as the
European guitar.]
CHAPTER VI.
TEHERAN - ISPAHAN.
We are already some farsakhs [A] from Teheran when day breaks on the
4th of February, 1889. The start is not a propitious one. Hardly have
we cleared the Ispahan gate than down comes the Shagird's horse as
if he were shot, breaking his girths and rider's thumb at the same
moment. Luckily, we are provided with rope, and Persian saddles are
not complicated. In ten minutes we are off again; but it is terribly
hard going, and all one can do to keep the horses on their legs.
Towards midday the sun slightly thaws the surface of the frozen snow,
and makes matters still worse. Up till now the pace has not been
exhilarating. Two or three miles an hour at most. It will take some
time to reach India at this rate!
Four or five hours of this work, and there is no longer a sign of life
to be seen on the white waste, saving, about a mile ahead of us,
a thin wreath of grey smoke and half a dozen blackened tents - an
encampment of gypsies. Far behind us the tallest minarets of the
capital are dipping below the horizon, while to the left the white and
glittering cone of Demavend stands boldly out from a background of
deep cloudless blue. Though the sun is powerful - so much so, indeed,
that face and hands are already swollen and blistered - the cold in the
shade is intense. A keen, cutting north-easter sweeps across the white
waste, and, riding for a time under the shadow of a low ridge of
snow, I find my cigar frozen to my lips - nor can I remove it without
painfully tearing the skin. Gerome is in his element, and, as a
natural consequence, my spirits fall as his rise. The slowness of
our progress, and constant stumbling of my pony, do not improve the
temper, and I am forced at last to beg my faithful follower to desist,
for a time at least, from a vocal rendering of "La Mascotte" which
has been going on unceasingly since we left Teheran. He obeys, but
(unabashed) proceeds to carry on a long conversation with himself in
the Tartar language, with which I am, perhaps happily, unacquainted.
Truly he is a man of unfailing resource!
But even his angelic temper is tried when, shortly afterwards, we ride
past the gipsy encampment As he dismounts to light a cigarette out
of the wind, one of the sirens in a tent catches sight of the little
Russian, and in less than half a minute he is surrounded by a mob of
dishevelled, half-naked females, who throw their arms about him, pull
his hair and ears, and try, but in vain, to secure his horse and drag
him into a tent. These gipsies are the terror of travellers in Persia,
the men, most of them, gaining a precarious living as tinkers and
leather-workers, with an occasional highway robbery to keep their
hand in, the women living entirely by thieving and prostitution. The
gentlemen of the tribe were, perhaps luckily for us, away from home on
this occasion. One of the women, a good-looking, black-eyed girl, was
the most persistent among this band of maenads, and, bolder than the
rest, utterly refused to let Gerome get on his pony, till, white with
passion, the Russian raised his whip. This was a signal for a general
howl of rage. "Strike me if you dare!" said the girl, her eyes ablaze.
"If you do you will never reach the next station." But in the confusion
Gerome had vaulted into his saddle, and, setting spurs to our horses,
we galloped or scrambled off as quick as the deep snow would allow us.
"Crapule va!" shouted the little man, whose cheek and hair still bore
traces of the struggle. "Il n'y a qu'en Perse qu'on fait des chameaus
comme cela!"
Ispahan is about seventy farsakhs distant from Teheran. The journey
has, under favourable conditions, been ridden in under two days, but
this is very unusual, and has seldom been done except for a wager by
Europeans. In our case speed was, of course, out of the question, with
the road in the state it was. The ordinary pace is, on an average, six
to eight miles an hour, unless the horses are very bad. It was nearly
a week, however, before we rode through the gates of Ispahan, and even
this was accounted a fair performance considering the difficulties we
had to contend with.
Towards sunset the wind rose - a sharp north-easter that made face and
ears feel as if they were being flogged with stinging-nettles.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 19 of 60
Words from 18239 to 19243
of 60127
