'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎367] (456/748)

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THE KAEUN I'JVEE 367
Another remarkable feature of the place, not, however, visible
from the exterior, is the almost universal construction of shabedans,
or shevedans* underground chambers hewn deep down in
the rock upon which the city stands, ventilated by shafts
conducting to the upper air. Almost every house is so provide^ ;
and one of these cellars that was shown to me, newly hollowed out
beneath the Governor's palace, had been excavated to a depth of at
least sixty feet below the surface, access to it being gained by a
steep flight of steps, and light as well as air being admitted by a
circular orifice in the vaulted rock-roof. In the months of July
and August, when the heat is appalling, the inhabitants live almost
entirely in these subterranean chambers, seldom stirring between
9 a.m . and sunset; and at such times the town becomes even more
than ordinarily a necropolis in brick and stone.
The trade of Shushter is equally inconsiderable with the agri
cultural development of its surrounding lands. Though possessed
Trade and a s0 ^ a ^ m i ra bly adapted to the growth of opium, but
manufac- little enterprise is shown in its cultivation, and only
twenty or thirty cases are said to be exported annually to
the Arabian coast and Muscat. Indigo is grown in some quantity
outside the town, and is responsible for a predominant tone of blue
in the costumes of both sexes. Selby, in 1842, though reporting
the local trade as small, lamented that nearly all the cottons,
woollens, chintzes, cutlery, hardware, and sugar were supplied by
Russia, notwithstanding a long and tedious land-carriage from
Isfahan. 2 Whatever may have been the case fifty years ago, I
found that Russian ascendency had now completely ceased, there
being few, if any, Russian articles in the town, and the European
import trade consisting almost entirely of English or Indian goods,
brought from Busrah either via Amarah on the Tigris and Dizful,
or by Mohammerah and the Karun river. The sole local manu
factures appear to be a species of bright-coloured carpet or matting,
made of cotton and wool, and a felt of coarse pattern. The bazaar,
which was once the largest in Khuzistan, consists only of two
diminutive alleys crossing each other under a dome, of the stalls
before alluded to, and of one or two open booths, with a roof
1 Elsewhere in Persia they are called serdabs, literally * cold water.' Layard
says they are known in Shnshter as shadrewan (Early Adventures, vol. ii. p. 43) ;
but this is a mistake.
2 Journal of the B.G.S., vol. xiv. pp. 234, 242.