'Through Persia on a side-saddle' [‎187] (220/360)

LAST MONTHS AT KERMAN
187
came; and just after the New Year the Persian Com
missioner arrived on his way from Tehran to the frontier
and came to call. Years ago Mirza Asraf Ali had been
with the late Sir Oliver St. John on the Sistan Commission,
and he was in consequence quite accustomed to mixing
with Europeans. We found him a most pleasant man of
about sixty, straight, and well set-up. Unfortunately
he had forgotten all his French, if indeed he had ever
known much; but a certain Haji Khan accompanied him
as interpreter, a gentleman whose English ' as she is spoke
was very amusing. We were both anxious to be 'on
the march' again. Kerman was cold and somewhat
dreary at this season of the year; the Farman Farma
and his suite were busied with preparations for an
immediate departure to the warmth of Khabis, where
palms and orange-trees flourished only thirty miles off,
and I felt disappointed when the Persian Commissioner—
the Itisham-i- Vizir eh, as his title was—left us on his long
journey to the frontier to join Colonel Holdich and the
other officers of the Boundary Commission.
However, we were not kept long in suspense. A
telegram came from the Minister ordering my brother
to start for the frontier as soon as possible after the
arrival of a gholam with instructions and maps from
Tehran; and on the afternoon of January 13th the
expected messenger galloped into the Consulate, having
accomplished the six hundred miles from the capital in
record time.
My delight was somewhat tempered by the whirl and
turmoil of packing; for we settled to start off early on
January 15th, and although I had made most of my pre
parations in the way of stores beforehand, yet the house