'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia' [‎579v] (1160/1386)

6
SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
it under those conditions in the latitude of Persia, viz., very hot and dry
in the summer, very cold and snowy in the winter, and temperate in
spring and autumn. In the more elevated districts, and especially in
the mountain passes, several of which our telegraph crosses at an
elevation of 8000 feet above the level of the sea, the cold in winter is
excessive, and the snow often such as to render all locomotion utterly
impossible. The hardships, and even the dangers, attending a journey in
the mountainous parts of Persia in winter, can hardly be realised by
those who have not undergone them ; and winter is, unfortunately, the
season when the telegraph lines are most liable to damage and interrup
tion, and when consequently such journeys have most frequently to be
undertaken by those who have charge of the maintenance of the
lines.
There were no carriageable roads, and wheeled vehicles were practi
cally unknown. The roads were merely mule tracks. Merchandise was
carried on the backs of camels, mules, and donkeys, and the personal
baggage of travellers almost exclusively on mules. Of those usefid animals
and of horses there was an abundant supply of excellent quality at very
moderate prices. Accommodation for caravans was to be found on most
of the main roads at caravanserais, from 25 to 30 miles apart, at most of
which fodder for the animals was procurable. This, however, was by no
means universally the case, and at many of the caravanserais nothing but
the rude shelter of the bare walls and a meagre supply of brackish water
was obtainable. For all his personal wants the traveller had to carry
his own supplies with him. Owing to the want of means of communica
tion, the local governors were all but uncontrolled by the Central Govern
ment at Teheran. Each governor, so long as he held office, was supreme,
even in matters of life and death, within his own province, and practically
did what seemed good in his own eyes. Leaving the towns out of
account, the country population consisted of about equal numbers of
sedentary cultivators or rayats, and nomadic pastoral tribes or Eeliauts.
The latter are a very independent and somewhat turbulent set of people.
They are well armed and well mounted, and their property, consisting as
it does of tents, flocks, and herds, is altogether movable. During a great
part of the year, they frequent the most mountainous and inaccessible
parts of the country. No wonder, therefore, that, like the highland rovers
of our own country in former days, they are apt to regard robbery as a
fairly legitimate means of supplying their wants and improving their lot.
Under such conditions it was not surprising that the roads should some
times have been infested by armed bands of robbers, who had as little scruple
in taking the lives as in helping themselves to the property of those who
were unfortunate enough to fall in their way. The state of a province
depended in this respect almost entirely on the character of the
Governor. If, like most of his countrymen, he was a man of energy and
determination, the roads were wonderfully safe, while if he was a man of
weak or indolent disposition, murders and robberies were of constant
occurrence. Under the former class of governors robbers were unspar
ingly hunted down and summarily executed—sometimes, it must be con
fessed, in a cruel or barbarous manner. Governors of this kind were at