'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.' [‎252] (283/582)

252 SUSPICION OF THE SOLDIERY.
wooden balconies hanging over the perpendicular cliffs. When
we passed beneath them, they were filled with women, all un
veiled, a sight which we had not before witnessed in any part of
Persia. They were, moreover, very familiar and communicative;
some enquiring from whence we came ; others abusing us in a loud
voice as spies of the Bactiari; and most of them assuring us that
we should be discovered by the soldiers in the khan.
After passing through the valley, and noting some garden
lands near, with trees and cultivation in the vale to the north-east
of us, all watered by a stream flowing through its centre, but now
nearly dry, we arrived at a good caravansera on the opposite side,
at the foot of the south-eastern cliff. It had a long Arabic
inscription, painted in white on a blue tiled ground, over the door;
and the khan itself appeared to be old and well-built, with a round
tower, like the bastion of a castle, at one of its angles.
We found this place full of soldiers; a troop of whom, under
the command of a Khan, had come thus far from Shiraz to scour
the road, of the robbers by which it was infested. They had been
halting in this neighbourhood for several days, and were to set out
on their return to-morrow. The arrival of two strangers alone,
dressed as Arabs, and both well-armed, excited such surprise
among them, that even before we alighted, we were surrounded by
a host of enquirers. All we could say, as to the motive of our
not waiting for a caravan, seemed to them improbable ; and the
general conclusion was, that we were either spies of the Bactiari,
from among the Arabs about Shooster, or that we were robbers on
our own account, thinking to escape suspicion by the boldness of
our entry here. We first remonstrated, then supplicated, for
God s sake, to be left in peace, and at last were driven to defiance,
which proved the only effectual mode of keeping these soldiers at
a distance.
From 1: ezdikhaust there are two roads to Shiraz ; the western
one being the nearest and most direct, and the eastern, which is
the longest and least frequented, going through Murgaub and by