Notes Prepared for Reference during Curzon’s Tour of the Persian Gulf, and Other Papers on Persia and the Persian Gulf [‎167r] (333/678)

9
^ eo -—Sykes—Second Revise,
worn-out camel left out of seven that had started in the night, I looked
down upon the substantial telegraph station at Chahbar, where I was
soon welcomed by Messrs. Wilson and Keelan with the hearty kind
ness so universal throughout Persia and Baluchistan. A day or two
later came the welcome news that the Karwanis, taken in front and
rear, had given up their chief, Shai Mohamed, the murderer, and that
his accomplice Malik Jind had been shot; so that my mission was
finally crowned with success.
In due course of time orders came for me to proceed to Shiraz, and
special arrangements were made for a British India steamer to pick me
up. After spending a few days at Bushire, we started for Shiraz in
very hot weather, the hours we spent at Daliki, at the foot of the
famous Kotals, b ing especially unpleasant. Travelling up country, and
by moonlight, is perhaps the best way to see this wild m=ize of moun
tains, and I never remember anything so grimly savage and frowning
as the apparently sheer ladders up which British go ids are painfully
carried. Five ymars previously I had travelled in the opposite direction
as fast as possible to catch a steamer, but on the present occasion a day
was spent at Shapur, where the rock sculptures were inspected, although,
owing to weakness, I was unable to visit the cave containing the statue
of the great king. At Kazerun we camped in a garden of oranges,
known as the Bagh-i-Nazzar, with a superb avenue, the trees in which
are said to be four hundred years old, and are perhaps 40 feet in height.
A particularly small lime of excellent flavour is also grown, the garden,
indeed, producing several varieties bch of oranges and limes.
Shiraz, where I stayed for three months, is a city of contrasts. Sir
Thomas Herbert evidently left his heart behind when he was forced to
proceed on his journey, and certainly the people seem to enjoy life
with a zest quite unknown elsewhere in Persia. The gardens at
Masjid-i-Bardi which disappointed Lord Ourzon would, 1 feel sure, have
won his praise in the summer; nevertheless, the climate does not suit
Europeans, and consequently Shiraz has a bad name, although the heat
is not excessive. With the aid of my host and future fellow-traveller,
Mr. Wood, a piece of ground was rented and polo s organized, to the joy
of the Sbirazis. Even the donkey-boys caught the infection and started
the game. Time quickly passed, and after a few days at the Kuh-
i-Bamu, where I enjoyed the resident’s hospitality in a valley at an
eleyation of 6700 feet, I left Shiraz with regret, although until I did so
my health was not restored. Two days were spent at Persepolis, and
we dined by moonlight where—
“ Those black granite * pillars, once high-reared
By Jamshid in Persepolis, to bear
His house, now, ’mid their broken flights of steps,
Lie prone, enormous, down the mountain-side.” f
The following morning a visit was paid to the Sassanian sculptures,
the chief figure in which is quaintly described by Josafa Barbaro as
“ a great ymage on horsbacke, seemyng to be of a boysterouse man, who
they saie was Sampson, about the which arr many other ymages
apparailed of the frenche faoon, with longe heares.” f
During the summer I had been engaged in collecting Persian
references to the ancieut game of Gu-i-chogan, which, under the guise
of polo, I have been instrumental in re-introducing to its ancient
home. Among other pieces of poetry and prose was one from the Shah
Nama, in which Zal, praising Mthrab of Kabul as a warrior, says—
“ In figure, none approach him,
No one is his peer with the gu.” §
roots of Hind are offered for sale; also slaves of Hini, Abyssinia, and Zanzibar. It is
a mart for fine velvets, shawls, sashes, and such-like articles of value. Close to Tiz is
Makran, the mine of sugar candy and sugar, which is exporte 1 to all countries of the
heathen and of Islam.” The Arab travellers, however, speak of Tiz as a small port,
and Afzal Kermani is certainly prone to exaggeration.
* They are, in reality, limestone. f Shelley’s f ‘Alastor.”
t 1 Travels of Venetians in Persia,’ p. 81. Hakluyt Society.
§ These lines appeared to me not to refer to polo, but to a weapon, and it has
struck me that the pear-shaped pendant that swings at the royal charger’s quarters in
these superb rock pictures may have been what is known as a morning star. Against
the usual theory that it was a tassel, I would urge that such ornaments are not fastened
by chains, that there only appears to be one, and that it is not in every panel, as it
would probably be if belonging to the horse-gear. Again, it would not serve its