'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎245] (284/714)

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CHAPTER X
FROM MESHED TO TEHERAN
ha P pl^ s ;:ptdt?dt i t^:„ 0 "^ t bce,, contr " ed bym » ^
P oanced as bj a good tavern or inn- D e . J ohnson, BomeUS Life.
I ersicos ocli, puer, apparatus.
lioiiACE, C cltiti *, Lib. I, xxxviii.
laBterfi/'t? POl ^ C f Clis0ussi0ns contained in the last two
Chapters, t WI 11 be a rehef to snch of my readers as have passed
route be- 8" ' 1 ^ ie_J 7 liave 11 ot altogether evaded, that ordeal
MeTed !? tUm t0 a Cllapter witl1 more digestible contents,
and avmg spent eight clays at Meshed, I started upon the
TeWn Iong rfiapar ride t0 Teheran The ;s . b
the Persians, and l s therefore paid for by the traveller, as 154
fmaiu. At the full complement of four miles to a this
would amount to 610 miles ; but, though the Khorasan farsakh is
famed beyond all others for its odious and seemingly inexhaustible
length, 1 a compliment in reality to the funereal monotony of the
road—the distance (comparing my own estimate with' that of
previous voyagers) is under rather than over 560 English miles
It is surprising how soon, if a man be riding alone and have nought
o distract him but the paces of his steed and the thought of his
destination, he can arrive at an approximately correct calculation
oi the distance he is covering from stage to stage. The route
between Meshed and Teheran is divided into twenty-four stages
e post-houses being established at distances varying from fifteen
to t irty miles, but averaging twenty-three miles apart. This
1 1 What a long farsahh is that of Khorasan !' says a traveller who has toiled
' Tu who can no ionger ci ^ to hi - s ^
thV™ r 0nt 0f hlS saddle - ' B y the beard of the Prophet,' said one of
of Om^for my^r? T hal " ng - ground ' ' the road is ^nger than the entrails
proveT worthv of V ^ ^ ^ ^ teeUng ' There is also a loc al
proverb, woithy of being quoted (Burnes' Travels into Bokhara, vol. iii p Sfn
andthiT . at the Kh0rasani farmU is as endless as the chatter of women'
and that he who measured them must have done so with a broken chain