"دليل بلاد فارس، المجلد I ويشمل محافظات أستراباد، شاهرود-بوستان، خراسان، وسيستان" [و‎‎٢‎٨‎٤] (٧٢٢/٥٧٤)

general practice of the country, sleep on tlie floor, on mats or carpets of
their own.
*31. The arms in use are old, European, muzzle-loading, percussion
. i muskets, with bayonets. Besides these, there are
in store 30,000 Wendel rifles (10,700, see ante)
bought from the Austrian government, the present stock of ammuni
tion for which was also brought from Vienna. None of these
rifles have been issued to the troops, who are, therefore, unexercised in
their use. When a regiment is sent home on furlough, its arms are
returned into store. Stores of muskets are kept in Tihran, Tabriz,
Mashhad, Shiraz, and at some other places.
f32. There are plenty of Smoothbore, muzzle-loading, brass fieldguns
made in the country. Few of them, however, are in a serviceable state, the
carriages being all in a wretched condition. Four years ago, 18 Uchatiu
Austrian fieldguns were purchased, with carriages and harness com
plete, and a certain quantity of ammunition. One of the Austrian officers
was to have superintended the manufacture in the Tihran arsenal of
shells, &c., for the guns ; but he soon resigned, and nothing was done.
Lately 30 mountain guns, with a certain amount of ammunition, have
also been obtained from Austria.
133. Only a few horses are kept to drag out the guns on review days ;
but there are no regularly organised field batteries, with their proper
complement of horses.
§3L On the march the men provide themselves at their own expense
with donkeys,—one to every two or three men,—to carry their bedding,
clothing, provisions, drinking water,, and aims. there is no system
of transport or supply. Practically, every man looks after himself.
A regiment on the march—600 or 700 men and 200 or 300 donkeys
straggles along a line 50 to 100 miles in length.
35. The horsemen are good riders, and generally have good, hardy
horse's The infantry and artillery soldiers are strong, and capable of
enduring great fatigue. A march of 300 or 400 miles at an average
rate of 20 miles a day Would be thought no extraordinary feat.
* 3 Q Owino-chiefly to the want of discipline, which often makes Persian
troops more'lerrible to their friends than their enemies, villages on the
hio-hways are conspicuous by their absence. If the liability to occasional
exaction at the hands of a passing regiment is thus sufficient to drive the
population from the neighbourhood of the highroad into more inconvenient
and less accessible situations, what must the reign of terror be where a
Persian force is collected for active military operations: Its mere presence
is nothing short of a calamity. Not long ago I witnessed a scene amusingly
illustrative of the relations between troops and villagers. Near the
borders of Irak and Fars on the highway between Ispahan and bmraz
* Para 31 incomplete: vi'le Mr. Thomson’s Report, June 1880.
+ Part 32 incomplete : vide Mr. Thomson’s Report. The carnages are not so bad as Colonel
T Para, d-incompiei- T) • • sufficiently proved by the fact that artillery is
f .rljtLmrffte other ptrtt „r®e °oSg, whidf (mclmlmg the ret™,, to
m'StSl.feist march of 600 to’ 1,000 mile, through a mountainous country "'thout
'“Nora. 33.—The total number of horses is 1,700 i of u-hieh, 300 are ahvays at Tihrau, and
1>0 f p"lf i'wS givf iNf v f Iff lifted idea of the disorder. It should
read , be fold several days’ m.,rc„ belaud then- reg.meut,’’
OD