'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.' [‎188] (219/582)

jgg FROM GOOLPYEGAN
and was more particularly so in the present instance, by the Seid
himself, who asked me of how many my party originally con
sisted ? and what was about the rough amount of my gains ? to
both of which I gave but unsatisfactory answers.
At many of the villages in our route from Kermanshah thus far,
we had seen stone doors used in the garden walls—being large
slabs of blue slate, of which all the hills between Hamadan and
this are composed;—so placed, as to turn on a pivot, of a piece
with itself, and bolted on the inside by thrusting the hand in
through a large hole. Here, however, at Dehuck, we saw these
stone doors used in the dwellings of the people, some of them
of a considerable size, and one of them with the words ' Ya
Ali' deeply cut in good Arabic characters. The largest of these
doors was one now lying disused, before the entrance to a
mosque, to which it might once have belonged. This was
nearly six feet square, and six inches thick, in one smooth, so
lid, and unfractured piece. The common size of those now
hung here was larger than of these seen in the Hauran, and at
the Tombs of Oom Kais, in Syria; but they were not in general
so thick : none of them were well-finished, or ornamented like
the former ; but they were hung and closed in exactly the same
way. The scarcity of wood had in both instances been, no doubt,
the principal cause of their use; though here, security was cer
tainly an additional motive, as there were now existing many
new as well as old wooden doors, and a sufficient number of
poplar trees to furnish the materials for many more.
Dehuck is seated in a dreary and narrow valley, between bare
rocky hills. The little cultivatable land about it is better ma
naged than is usual in this country. We saw here, ploughing j
harrowing, dressing with manure, turning up with the spade and
hoe, and other operations of husbandry, performed as well as in
Europe. The town contains a population of about three thousand
inhabitants, all Mohammedans of the Sheeah sect. It has a
mosque, and a small market-place ; but all the necessaries of life