'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' [‎177] (252/412)

PERSIA. 177
of the country may be easily imagined, when we never saw the
peasants go singly or unarmed from one village to another. The
general features and character of the country were still the same as
we had been accustomed to (with the exception of the terrific
Kootuls) from Bushire to where we were; arid and grey coloured
plains, of greater or less extent, covered with a peculiar rose (the
rosa uniflora), in which here and there was an oasis of green, indi
cating a village ; no where had we seen the line of the horizon un
broken by hills. For its extent, Persia is perhaps the most moun
tainous country in the world.
Travelling in Persia I found to be monotonous in the extreme;
passing through the same scenery every day, and not meeting with a
wayfarer for perhaps weeks together. After the first march from
Bushire we had not seen a single cafila A train of travellers; a caravan; or any large party of travellers. of mules the whole way up.
Our next three stages were Gao Souar, twenty miles ; Tousley,
sixteen ; and Hissar, twenty-sixj where we arrived on the 18th.
A short distance from the last encampment, we passed a village,
near which was a large tumulus, evidently artificial. This village
is built on the site of a Guebre town, and (like all the others
which we now saw) presented the appearance of rows of large bee
hives, or rather nests of termites or white ants. There being a great
scarcity of timber in this part of the country, they cannot construct
their houses with flat roofs, they are therefore each surmounted by
a small dome.
We now frequently observed tumuli. They are supposed by some
to have been those on which the fire-temples were built: others again
maintain, that from the quantities of brick and pottery, and not
unfrequently coins and pieces of cloth, which are met with in digging
2 a into