'A second journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, between the years 1810 and 1816. With a journal of the voyage by the Brazils and Bombay to the Persian Gulf. Together with an account of the proceedings of His Majesty's embassy under Sir Gore Ouseley, Bart. K.L.S. With two maps, and engravings from the designs of the author.' [‎278] (329/516)

278 DESCRIPTION OF THE PERSIAN CAMP.
whither the King retires to enjoy the breeze and the view of his
camp.
Around this building, to an immense extent, at various intervals, was
spread the camp, consisting of tents and pavilions of all colours and
all denominations. An order had been issued, that every tent in the
camp should be pitched with its entrance immediately facing the pa
lace, by which it was intended that every one who came forth, should
make the ser ferou, or bow the head to the royal abode, an invention
in honors scarcely to be exceeded by those exacted by Alexander. The
King thus became, as it were, the nave of a great wheel; and he was
so completely hemmed in by his troops, that if an enemy had ap
peared it would have been impossible to get at him without first cutting
a road through the labyrinth of ropes and tents, which every where
surrounded him.
The Princes were lodged in large pavilions, surrounded by the dis
tinguishing serperdeh; the viziers and other great officers were in
similar tents, but without that outward screen, and the troops were dis
posed of in small tents of every description. As the King's army was
mostly composed of men drawn from the different tribes, each tribe
was encamped in separate divisions ; the |Bakhtiarees, the Afshars, the
Irakees, the Shah-i-pesends, were all stationed by lots or compartmenst:
but notwithstanding this attempt at regularity, such was the intermix
ture of men and cattle, tents, shops, and hot baths, of the instruments of
war, and of the luxuries of private ease, that all appearance of order was
lost. The tents of the horsemen were known by their long spears being
stuck upright at their entrance, those of the infantry by their muskets
and matchlocks. Twelve pieces of artillery were situated in the midst
of tents and confusion ; and although they were arranged in line, yet
nothing could have got them clear of the camp, if they had been re
quired to act at a moment s warning. The King, like the Persian mo-
narchs of old, takes his women with him upon his marches, but not in
such great numbers. * The Persians enjoy as many luxuries in their
* Quint. Curt. lib. iii. c. 3.