'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎103] (136/714)

FROM ASHKABAD TO KUOHAN
103
But on another occasion ;—
To carry on business with him was more than difficult. One had
to drink with him, to listen to his drunken speeches, to be present at
his orgies, and still to be on one's guard not to show signs of disgust,
which would at once have called forth the anger of the barbarian.
Truly the world has produced few such brutes, as Colonel Grodekoff
expressed himself in a telegram to General Skobeleff.
It would appear, however, that the Khan has only perpetuated
himself, and bequeathed to the estimable son whom I have before
named, a taste which he had himself inherited from his father;
for when Eraser was the guest of Reza Kuli Khan in 1822 he
relates that he saw ' the Khan and the whole court dead drunk.'
There is a certain line continuity, therefore, in the family pro
ceedings.
It may be imagined that, knowing as much as I did about
Amir Husein Khan, my familiarity with whose antecedents would
Two inter probably have caused a severe shock to the old gentleman
views had he been aware of it, I looked forward with some
anxiety to my interview. Donning my frock coat, which I confess
looked somewhat incongruous beneath a Terai hat, and my goloshes,
and attended by as large a retinue of my own servants as I could
muster, 1 I followed the escort of six persons who had been sent by
the Khan to conduct me to his palace hard by. r lhe facade over
the entrance gateway was in the form of a triple arch filled with
elegant bas-reliefs in white plaster, made after the fashion of an
Italian villa, behind which a neat little kiosque rose above the
roof. Passing through the gateway, which was filled with guaids,
I was conducted to the left into a large open court, about twice as
long as it was broad, the lower end of which was divided into
flower-beds, while above the middle was a hauz, one of those laigt
tanks common to every Persian house of any pretensions, and so
cunningly constructed that the water just laps over the stone biim
and trickles down into a channel outside. On^ the pavement
beyond were standing some thirty individuals with theii backs
turned to the tank and their faces towards the upper end, where I
could see into an elevated aiivan or reception chamber, separated
1 It is a cardinal point of Persian etiquette when you go out visiting to take
as many of your own establishment with you as possible, whether riding or walk
ing on foot; the number of such retinue being accepted as an indication of the
rank of the master.