"رحلات في آشور، ميديا، وبلاد فارس، بما في ذلك رحلة من بغداد مروراً بجبل زاغروس وصولاً إلى حمدان، في أكباتانا القديمة، والبحوث في أصفهان وأطلال برسبوليس، ورحلة منها مروراً بشيراز وشابور وصولاً إلى ساحل البحر. وصف البصرة، بوشهر، البحرين، هرمز، ومسقط، وسرد لحملة ضد قراصنة الخليج العربي، مع رسومات توضيحية لرحلة بحرية لنيرتشوس، والمرور ببحر العرب إلى بومباي. [‎٧] (٥٨٢/٣٨)

TO KESRABAD, OR DASTAGHERD. ^
the eyes and in the centre of the veil, apparently made of stout
threads crossing each other with wide intervals between them.
The men looked altogether like a tribe of Polish Jews, or
old clothesmen, mounted and armed for some temporary expedi
tion of robbery and plunder; and the women partook of all their
meanness of appearance, without making, however, the same show
of arms to conceal their cowardice.
At muggrib, or sunset, three separate parties of these women
performed their prayers in public, spreading a cloak on the
ground in the usual way, but still remaining covered. Whether
they performed their previous ablutions above the ankles and
elbows as the men, I did not perceive, as I saw them only after
they had begun. It was the first time of my ever having seen
women pray thus publicly in a crowd, or thus encumbered with
their veils and outer envelope; and this last circumstance suffi
ciently embarrassed them in making the prescribed genuflections.
We were not all in movement until the sun had completely
set, and yielded up his empire to the milder queen of night. #
The course we took was about north-east by north, for the first
three hours, which led us over a bare plain of fine earthy soil,
wanting only water to render it fertile. Over this were so many
tracks of animals that we got twice into a wrong path, at this
short distance only from Bagdad.
At the end of about three hours, we reached a small building
near a well, which produces, in the winter only, a scanty supply of
brackish water. This is called " Orta Bir," a compound of Turk
ish and Arabic, signifying " the half-way well," from an idea that
it is just midway between Bagdad and the first caravanserai to
the east of it. There were here many mounds which appeared
to be of fine earth, and formed perhaps the sides of channels
* One must travel in the parched deserts of the East, to feel the full force of the contrast
between the burning day and gentle night, and to understand the Oriental admiration of
the moon and stars.