'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.' [‎155] (186/582)

TO BISITOON AND KENGAWAR.
155
though the population is thought not to exceed four thousand
souls. It stands at the eastern extremity of the plain we had
crossed, and has a lofty range of mountains rising above it on the
east, over which the road to Hamadan leads. Its gardens, which
are numerous, and well-watered, are its chief support, and furnish
occupation to the greater number of the inhabitants. In Sadawah
itself, I was struck with the presence of a great quantity of old
pottery, in fragments, scattered over the town, some glazed and
coloured, and some plain; but I noted no vestiges of architecture,
or remains of ancient buildings there.
About a mile to the north-west of the town, is an old castle,
standing on a very high artificial mound, which can be seen from
a great distance. It has now a small village, called Khakree,
within its enclosure ; but the age of the castle itself we could not
ascertain. About the same distance in the opposite quarter, or a
mile south-east of the town, is a pretty village, called Imam Zade,
seated on a rising ground among gardens, but thinly peopled.
We were visited at our quarters in this place, by an exceed
ingly clever Dervish, from Herat, in Khorassan; who, as well as
Ismael, had been at Bokhara, the chief city of the Turcomans.
He was young and handsome, but most fantastically dressed; he
was a perfect master of the Persian poets, entire odes from whose
works he repeated by heart, with a facility that surprised me, and
charmed Ismael, to whom they were all familiar, absolutely into
tears. The politeness of our new friend was of the most polished
cast, and could have been acquired only in the best society.
This man, who spoke sufficiently of Arabic for us to converse
without the medium of translation, dressed as he was in rags, with
bare breast and arms, uncovered by even the fragment of a shirt,
with naked legSj and half-naked thighs, a beard and mustachios
never trimmed, thick locks of hair hanging uncombed over his
neck and forehead, a fancy-coloured painted cap on his head, a
large, heavy, and rusty chain of iron, with brass rings, wound
round his arms, and a huge ram's horn slung across his shoulders
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