'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.' [‎95] (126/582)

Td THE FRIENDS OF MY COMPANION. 95
spected, and thought as honourably of, as any virtuous girl,
whose amiable qualities should have procured her an honourable
lover, while her companions were seeking in vain for such a dis
tinction.
But it is time to return from a digression, which it is hoped will
not be thought wholly irrelevant, as tending to elucidate a very
important feature in the manners of the East, and one on which
much misconception exists. My Dervish, then, notwithstanding
this disposition, unknown and almost inconceivable among us, had
many excellent qualities which Europeans, as well as Asiatics,
know how to appreciate. He was brave and fearless in the highest
degree, a virtue in the estimation of all men, from the savage to
the sage. He had a heart that felt most warmly for the distresses
of the poor, and had relieved many from his own purse, and plead
ed the cause of others in appeals to mine, during the short time we
had been together. On our route, we had found a little orphan
boy, whom his master had left behind him on the road, from his
incapacity to walk as fast as the daily journeys of the caravan. As
his feet had swollen from his being shoeless, Ismael set him on his
own horse, and walked from Harounabad all the way to this place,
on his account alone. Not satisfied with this, he had this morn
ing sought out his master in a khan, publicly reproved him for his
cruelty and want of feeling, purchased a pair of shoes for the lad
himself, and gave him two sequins to provide against any similar
abandonment. He had been hitherto faithful in all his transac
tions with me, whether it regarded his word or the unlimited use
of my purse, and I believe him to have been sincere in his ex
pressions of gratitude for my consenting to take him with me. He
had brought his mother to Bagdad in her old age, and supported
both her and her widowed sister with a large family of children
for several years, always leaving with them a sufficient sum of
money whenever he quitted that place on an excursion of pleasure.
And to close all, he was apparently beloved by every one who
knew him for any length of time, which a man can hardly be