"دليل بلاد فارس، الجزء III، وهو يتضمن محافظة فارس، لورستان، عربستان، خوزستان، يزد، كرمانشاه، أردلان، كردستان" [و‎‎٢‎٣‎٥] (٦٨٦/٤٧٤)

447
LUR—LUR
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passed some time in his tent. The Lurs are a simple-minded people ;
the men are light-hearted and joyous ; the women go unveiled ; the
young are well favoured, vpith ruddy cheeks and dark auburn or black
hair ; they age early, but not so the men: a fat or stout man or
woman was not seen; as a rule, their figures are wiry and well knit to
endure fatigue. The prevailing diseases appeared to be indigestion,
rheumatism, fever, liver and spleen, due to scant clothing, sleep
ing on the ground and exposure to cold. The women wear loose
shapeless dresses, affording no warmth and little underclothing. The
clothing of the children is of a like character, affording no protection
against the cold to the stomach and the regions of the spleen and liver.
The women applied for charms to bring back the lost love of a
husband, lost generally by reason of their sterility ; to induce child
birth, &c.; for amulets to be worn on the caps of their infant sons
with the idea that the fortune of the giver would follow the child
throughout life, and to this extent I became sponsor to the most
infantile of Haji "All’s many sons. The sick of the tribe came for
medicines. Ordinary pills had little effect, but when six failed to
satisfy, I threw up the case.
Unmolested, I was allowed to move about the camps of the various
families; each family or group of families camped on the pasture
land told off to it, and each with its flocks and herds took the road
assigned to it on the march. The confusion on the line of march
passes description; sheep, goats, bullocks, donkeys, &c., horsemen,
and foot passengers, blocked the narrow hill paths ; the cries of the
herdsmen and herdswomen, “ Al-o-ha” were heard everywhere, and
when in the narrow ravines the pressure and crush were the greatest,
the chiefs would add to the hubbub and confusion (tamasha, spec
tacle, they called it) by discharging their rifles, of which the tribe
possessed about a dozen (Peabody’s Martini-Henry).
Great interest was taken in my movements and my note-book
excited special curiosity. Many were the exclamations “ What does
he write ?”
The subjects of conversation that most interest all Lurs are our
political relations with Russia, Turkey, Egypt, and Afghanistan, our
marriage laws and social customs. Great Britain is known as
London ; admiration is apparently felt for both Turkey and Egypt for
having spent such vast sums of foreign money and declining to repay
them. Russia is recognised to be a great power. _
Afghanistan is looked upon as a British possession, and its Amir to
rule it by our favour. Great interest everywhere was taken in the
movements of the Mahdi. The sympathy with him is political rather
than religious, it being hoped that he, a Muhammadan may conquer a
• Christian power and be an agent destined to raise the fortunes of
Islamism. A withdrawal from the Sudan will be construed into a
Christian defeat and a Muhammadan victory. ... ,
The Muhammadan tenets do not appear to be strictly kept by them.
Haii Ali observed the hours of prayer, only because, perhaps, the
Sharif-ud-din, to whom he was greatly indebted for a money loan to
enable him to meet the demands of the revenue officers, was his guest.