'Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of Persepolis, and journey from thence by Shiraz and Shapoor to the sea-shore. Description of Bussorah, Bushire, Bahrein, Ormuz, and Muscat, narrative of an expedition against the pirates of the Persian Gulf, with illustrations of the voyage of Nearchus, and passage by the Arabian Sea to Bombay.' [‎315] (346/582)

TO KAUZEROON.
315
also ; and the Dervish Ismael, who on some occasions dreaded the
mischievous practices of demons, and at others was too much a phi
losopher to admit the belief of any thing as certain, excepting only
the existence of God, insisted on it that it was through the malice
of the devils residing in these ruins, that we were this morning
entangled among the hills, and led astray from the king's high
way. I should have suffered him to have entertained this opi
nion, without attempting to combat it, but that he drew from
thence the most inauspicious omens, and became quite disheart
ened from proceeding. A few days' detention, he said, would
probably procure us the protection of a caravan ; why then, he
asked, in these times of turbulence and trouble, when famine
rendered men desperate,—when all the evil spirits were abroad,
and the world evidently approaching its dissolution,—should we
venture ourselves alone against such a host of foes ? He thought
this was a warning for us to return, to which we should not be
insensible ; and, for the first time since his being with me, he
seemed almost angry at my apparent obstinacy. He told me that,
on leaving Ispahan, he had promised, by a secret vow, to give a
rupee to the fund of the poor at some tomb here, if we arrived
safe ; and he had actually performed his vow at Shiraz ; but he
now thought that even this preparatory good deed would be in
sufficient to preserve us from the many dangers that threatened
on every side. #
* As a striking instance how readily one class of popular traditions may be received, and
another of nearly the same description rejected, by the same individual, the following may be
mentioned: In his History of Persia, Sir John Malcolm says, that during a famine in Kho-
rassan, when ravaged also by the Usbeg Tartars, in the reign of Shah Tamasp, and a plague
raged at the same time, men ate their own species; but it was relieved by showers from
Heaven -.—there fell, according to Persian authors, a substance resembling a diminutive grain
of wheat; and this substance, when mixed with a small portion of flour, became a most
nourishing food. This is, at least, a very similar event to the supply of manna in the wilder
ness, which has been accounted for on natural grounds ; yet General Malcolm, while he says
nothing of his incredulity as to the one, evidently thinks the other to be a mere fable, to
judge by his notes of admiration affixed to the^passage in question. Vol. i. p. 511.
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