'Travels from India to England : comprehending a visit to the Burman Empire, and a journey through Persia, Asia Minor, European Turkey, &c., in the years 1825-26, by James Edward Alexander' [‎176] (251/412)

176 PERSIA.
not wish to take it, as he had always avoided receiving presents.
He declined it, saying in the Persian form of speech, " mali-ma
mal-i-shuma ust o mal-i-shuma mal-i-ma " since my property is your's,
and your's mine, keep the colt in your stable till it is fit to ride, and
then, inshallah (if it please God), I will send for it." The Khan
replied, " mohuhut kurdeed" " you have done me a kindness;"
" shicfkut-i'Shuma hum ma shoud " " may your favour never be less ?*
In the evening a ghoolam-i-shah, or one of the royal body-guard,
arrived from the King, charged with the news of a victory over the
Russians.
On our arrival at Moran, sixteen miles, on the 14th, we were
joined by Dr. McNeil. We proceeded next day twelve miles, to
Kaboot Rahung. It is wonderful how the number of patients in
creased after the arrival of the doctor. Men in high health an hour
before his arrival, and after eating hearty meals, fell suddenly sick:
however, when they found that they were obliged to swallow nau
seous draughts, before quitting his tent they speedily recovered. It
is a continual trial of temper for a European doctor practising in
Persia. It frequently happens that, after giving medicine to a man,
and asking him next day if he had taken it, he replies with the
greatest coolness, " No, for that an old woman had given him some-
" thing else, which would have a better effect." After prescribing
to another patient, and attending him for weeks, he at last becomes
so ill that you are obliged to go to his own house to see him ; you
there find all the medicines you had given him carefully piled up in
one of the nches.
Though the cultivation was now much more extensive, and further
lemoved from the villages than we had hitherto seen it, yet the state
of