'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.' [‎171] (202/582)

TO GOOLPYEGAN.
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the south-east, for I was now so weak, that the gentlest motion
of the horse was painful to me. Our road was still over barren
hills of blue slate, and generally uncultivated ground; when after
a tedious ride of three hours, in which we had scarcely gone
more than six miles, we reached the village of Alfraoun.
We alighted here at the house of a man known to the
Fakeer, and were treated with great civility. In the room where
we were received, two of his daughters were employed in making
a carpet for sale. The woof was formed by two layers of coarse
twine, about a quarter of an inch between the cords of each;
the upper layer having its cords falling into the intervals of the
lower, so that the space was reduced to half. Large balls of
coloured worsted were hung on a frame close by. The cords of
the woof were stretched by two horizontal bars, one above, and
the other below, and the carpet itself was worked from the bottom
upward. The girls sat before it, and beginning each toward their
respective side, approached, until they met each other in the
centre. The whole process consisted in taking into the fingers
two or three threads of worsted, of the colours suggested by the
fancy of the workers, passing them underneath a cord of the woof,
twisting them a little by the hand, to secure them in their places,
and then cutting off the ends with a knife, leaving a length of
perhaps half an inch from the bottom of the woof to the surface
of the carpet.
I continued still exceedingly ill; my fever was somewhat
abated at night, but I had yet no appetite, and was as weak as
an infant.
S ept. 26th. — We had been put to sleep by the Fakeer s
friend, in the stall, with all his live stock, consisting of three or
four cows, as many asses, and a large family of poultry. The air
of such a place, when the door was closed, which the owner him
self did, after we had retired, to keep his animals in safety, was
not of the purest kind ; nor was there a window, or a vent-
hole of any description to relieve us. As our own horses were
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