'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎608] (677/714)

608
PERSIA
far the best exhibition. They were composed of fine stalwart fellows,
well built and powerful, and with a higher average of stature, in
all probability, than any British regiment of the line. But the
equipment of the greater number, and the marching, were deplor
able in the extreme, and it was sad to see such good stuff so hope
lessly misused. 1
Elsewhere on the road from Meshed to Teheran I met a regi
ment of several hundred men on the march. From van to rear it
^ . j must have struggled over a length of road of about six
Regiments . 0
on the miles, the men were m every nondescript variety of
costume, with casual fragments or interpolations of uni
form showing between. They shambled along on foot in singles,
couples, or groups, their arms, kit, and cooking-pots in the case of
the less poor being packed upon asses, in that of the majority being
carried on their own backs. A few led horses and camels were
employed to carry some of the camp equipment. The officers, in
mufti, were encountered at intervals, leisurely ambling on mediocre
steeds. In the absence of any provision for transport or commis
sariat, regiments on the march help themselves as best they can
from the country or villages which they traverse. They are conse
quently regarded as an unmitigated curse by the peasants, and
my native servant told me at Yezdikhast that on a former occasion
when he visited the place he found the plank bridge withdrawn
and the village in a state of triumphant isolation, owing to the
passage of a Persian regiment, against whose exactions the in
habitants protected themselves in this thoroughly mediasval fashion.
Sir H. Layard was at Hamadan in 1840, just after a Persian army
had passed that way, and the picture drawn by him of devastated
fields, pillaged bazaars, ransacked dwellings, and cut-down orchards
justified his concluding remark that ' Hamadan looked as if it had
been taken and sacked in war.' 2 It was the same practice, a cen-
1 I can see neither honesty nor wisdom in repaying the courtesy of the
Naib-es-Sultaneh, which I have acknowledged, by a conversation such as the fol
lowing, that took place between a French officer, the compagnon de voyage of
M. Orsolle, and H.R.H. ( Le Cauoase et la Perse, p. 277) :—
N.-e.-S. ' What do you think of the Persian army ?'
F. 0. ' I have been astonished at the regularity and precision of the Infantry
manoeuvres. Under yqur Highness' direction, the army has made surprising pro
gress.'
N.-e.-S. ' What do you think of Teheran 1'
F. O. ' It is a magnificent city.'
2 Early Adventures, pp. 248, 275.