Through Persia on a Side-Saddle. ... With illustrations, etc

Preface

THIS book has no pretensions to be either historical, scientific, or political, being merely the record of a very happy period of my existence, which I have, in a way, relived by writing about it. My information, however, may claim to be correct as far as it goes, my brother, Captain Sykes, who has travelled for some years in Persia on Government service, having revised my manuscript. As I believe that I am the first European woman who has visited Kerman and Persian Baluchistan, my experiences may perhaps interest other women who feel the " Wander lust" but are unable to gratify their longing for adventure. My thanks are due to Haji Khan, a member of his High ness the Farman Farma's suite, and to the Armenian photographer at Tehran for several of the illustrations in this book, while the rest were taken by my brother and myself.

CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. THE JOURNEY TO THE CAPITAL OF PERSIA ... I II. TEHRAN 15 III. FROM THE CAPITAL TO FATIMA'S SHRINE AT KOOM . 31 IV. AS FAR AS KASHAN 44 V. ON THE MARCH TO YEZD 54 VI. THE GOAL OF OUR JOURNEY 68 VII. HOUSEKEEPING AT KERMAN 82 VIII. KERMAN AND ITS ENVIRONS I CO IX. OLLA PODRIDA II 7 X. FOUR VISITORS AND A MAID 1 34 XI. OUR STAY IN THE HILLS I44 XII. IN THE FOOTPRINTS OF MARCO POLO . . . . 154 XIII. OUR SOCIAL CIRCLE AT KERMAN 166 XIV. ARABABAD AND SAGOTCH, PERSIAN LADIES AND SOME PERSIAN CUSTOMS 1 80 XV. A PICNIC AT KERMAN I98 XVI. LAST MONTHS AT KERMAN 212 XVII. GOODBYE TO KERMAN 226 XVIII., THROUGH THE DESERT TO BAMPUR AND PAHRA . . 240 XIX. TO KUHAK AND THE FRONTIER COMMISSION . . . 256 XX. WITH THE PERSO-BALUCH BOUNDARY COMMISSION . 270 XXI. TO QUETTA WITH THE ENGLISH COMMISSION . . . 285 XXII.

UP THE PERSIAN GULF TO BUSREH .... 300 XXIII. THE KARUN RIVER AND AHWAZ 315 XXIV. FROM BUSREH TO TEHRAN AGAIN 332 XXV. TEHRAN REVISITED, AND THE JOURNEY HOME TO ENGLAND 34I LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Facing Page THE BAZAAR AT RESHT A GATEWAY AT TEHRAN s '5 MY INVITATION TO THE PARTY IN THE SHAH'S ANDEROON PERSIAN LADY IN INDOOR COSTUME 17 i8 PERSIAN WOMEN IN OUTDOOR DRESS THE GARDEN OF FIN AT KASHAN A DERVISH .... 4° 5o 64 THE FAf ADE OF THE CONSULATE AT KERMAN GROUP OF SERVANTS AT THE CONSULATE . 8i 92 DAKME, OR PARSEE TOWER, WHERE THE DEAD io8 ARE EXPOSED NASRULLAH KHAN AND HIS FRIENDS BARGI .... 126 t39 NOMAD WOMEN iSS MOSQUE AT MAHUN 164 167 H. H. THE FARMAN FARMA AND HIS SUITE COURTYARD OF THE MOSQUE AT MAHUN PERSIAN WOMEN IN INDOOR DRESS ■74 1 86 A PERSIAN GUITAR-PLAYER KALAH-I-DUKTAR 206 213 BREAD-TICKET ISSUED BY THE FARMAN FARMA THE LUNCHEON CAMEL 2l6 234 A BALUCHI WELL .

BALUCHIS 24I 252 THE PERSIAN FRONTIER COMMISSION A BALUCHI BAND 255 26l KUHAK 265 KAIANIAN MALIK TOMB 278 DERVISH WHO ACCOMPANIED THE FRONTIER COMMISSION MIRZA RIZA, ASSASSIN OF THE LATE SHAH 290 298 THE CHILDREN OF H. H. THE FARMAN FARMA A PERSIAN GARDEN .... 343

Chapter I The Journey To The Capital Of Persia The

"gorgeous East" has always possessed a strong fascination for me, and after reading " Eothen," that most delightful book of travels, the indescribable attraction of the Orient became, if possible, stronger than before. However, I never had any idea that my longings to leave the beaten track would be realised, and always regarded them merely as " Chateaux-en-Espagne " with which to while away idle hours. But Fate was kinder to me than I deserved. In June, 1894, my brother, Captain Molesworth Sykes, returned from his second journey in Persia, and in the following October he was asked by the Foreign Office to found a Consulate in the districts of Kerman and Baluchistan, those parts of Persia having been hitherto without a representative of her Majesty. He suggested that I should accompany him, and although I felt somewhat uncertain as to how I should adapt myself to an uncivilised existence, never having quitted Europe before, I was delighted at the prospect opening out in front of me.

We could only allow ten days for our manifold preparations, as it was all important to cross the Elburz Range before the winter snows began, and I am sure that no 2 member of my family will ever forget the rush and hurry of that time. It was necessary to take sufficient clothing to last for over a year, to buy a complete camp equipment, and to lay in furniture, linen, glass, and crockery for the new establishment at Kerman, and, what was perhaps more important than anything else, to engage a maid. However, all was accomplished in good time, and on November 2nd we left London for Marseilles, travelling to Constantinople on a " Messageries Maritimes " boat, and crossing the Black Sea to Batoum on an " Austrian Lloyd." From this point the Trans-Caucasus railway conveyed us to Baku, and one of the flat-bottomed Russian boats took us across the Caspian, and at the beginning of December we reached Enzeli, the harbour of Persia.

As the sea was somewhat rough, there was much anxiety among the passengers as to whether the tiny launch would be able to cross the breakers of the sandbar at the mouth of the harbour, and come out to convey us and our luggage from the steamer to the shore. If it had not done so we should have had to return in our steamer to Baku, and make the journey afresh, as friends of ours had done a fortnight previously. However, our luck did not desert us, and we were all landed safely on Persian soil, having Mr. Preece, H. B. M.'s Consul of Isfahan, and Mrs. Stainton, whom he was escorting to Tehran, as our fellow-travellers. I can never forget my feelings of joy and exultation when I realised that I was at last in Persia, on the threshold of a new life, which I ardently trusted might have its quantum of adventure.

I had been civilised all my days, and now I had a sense of freedom and expansion which quickened the blood and made the pulse beat high. The glamour of the East penetrated me from the first moment of landing on its enchanted shores, and although many a time I encountered hard facts, quite sufficient to destroy the romantic illusions of most folk, yet they struck against mine powerlessly. I was under a spell throughout my stay in Persia — a spell that endowed me with rose-coloured spectacles, and which THE fOURNEY TO THE CAPITAL OF PERSIA 3 even as I write, fills me with a strange yearning for the country which became a much-loved home to me, and where I spent the happiest years of my existence. Yes, I was on Persian soil at last ! " Lalla Rookh," with its rose gardens in which the " bulbul " eternally sings, and its maids of peer less beauty, loved by heroes of surpassing valour, with its brave fire-worshippers and awful Veiled Prophet, came into my mind, mingled with a dozen books of travel, in which the romance is stripped away remorselessly, and Persia, bare and barren as she is in reality, is exposed to the view.

I was, in a way, prepared for much that might come by the perusal of Mr. Curzon's comprehensive work on Persia. Visions of many a fatigue and hardship rose up in my mind's eye, long days on horseback, short nights in desolate caravanserai or airy tent, the glory of the dawn, and the crimson flush of the sunset. And with this return to Nature, as it were, with this free open-air life, mingled the thought of studying a new race, of doing my best to see with their eyes, to enter as far as I could into their unfamiliar lives. For we were bound to the real East, where we should have none but Orientals for our daily society, and our home would be in a city, by con trast with which Tehran would seem almost Western. But I fear I may have already wearied my reader with this digression on my private emotions, and so will begin some account of my journey up to the capital of Persia.

It was the beginning of December, and Enzeli lay flooded in the glorious sunshine which hardly ever fails in the " Land of the Lion and the Sun." It looked very pretty under a turquoise sky, the squalid village backed by the snowy Elburz Range, while the harbour made quite a picture with vessels lying at anchor, and the Shah's smart yacht in readi ness by the pavilion — a sort of glorified pagoda — to take off a Persian grandee, who was going to Baku in the steamer we had quitted to pay his respects to the new Tsar and lay a wreath on the grave of the late one. A large detachment of servants met our party on landing, and my brother's little Indian syce, Fakir Mahomet, seemed to be one gleam of white teeth in his joy at seeing his master again, and worked as hard as half a dozen ordinary Persians in his zeal to serve him.

We made our way to the hotel, a bare, scarlet building with a long balcony, dirty, and most scantily furnished, and as soon as our boxes were brought up from the steamer we removed the dubious bedding, replacing it with our own, and then took a walk along the sand-dunes by the sea, where pelicans, vultures, cormorants, and elegant grey cranes were disporting themselves. Young Mr. Churchill, brother of H.B.M.'s Consul at Resht, joined us that after noon, and his good spirits cheered us through a sort of Barmecide dinner, with long waits between each meagre course. However, I was told that this so-called hotel was palatial luxury compared to what we should encounter further on, so I felt I must not be critical. Here I tasted the Persian bread, or nan, for the first time — flabby, unleavened cakes made of coarse, brown flour.

It is much more palatable when toasted crisp instead of being in the damp state in which it was offered to us, and certainly some of the varieties I ate later on were better than this my first attempt ; but through out my stay in the country I never got quite accustomed to it. Next morning we started off" early in two fair-sized boats across the great Enzeli Lagoon for Pir-i-Bazaar. We six Europeans sat in one under an awning, and our six rowers, miserable-looking ragged fellows, worked very hard, using their long, spoon-like oars by raising themselves almost upright with each stroke, at the same time emitting a sharp hissing noise. It took two good hours' hard rowing, aided by a tattered sail, to get across the Lagoon to the mouth of the river, up which they towed us for another two hours, while we ate lunch, relieved of their strong odour of garlic.

The Lagoon was full of life. Flecks of pelicans and gulls were feeding ; cormorants fishing, their long, snake-like necks alone visible ; while cranes, ospreys, eagles, teal, and snipe flew, swam, or dived, all seemingly as tame as possible. Fish were leaping out of the transparent water, and we passed fishermen drawing in their nets, the spoils of which would go to supply the " Russian Fisheries " — a line of buildings on our left where much of the "caviare" of commerce is prepared. The scenery THE BAZAAR AT KESHT. became quite homelike as we left the Lagoon and its islets of reeds and rushes, and turned into the muddy river, the banks of which were bordered with rowans, hollies, willows, and trails of briony ; but whatever the flora might be like there was nothing to recall England in the landing-place at Pir-i-Bazaar.

To my dismay I found that we had to step into a veritable sea of liquid mud, and struggle as best we might along a plank sunk in mire, up a bank on to what was comparatively solid ground. A false step would have landed us in most unpleasant plight ; and it was with great relief that we saw our baggage carried up, as we had heard that a bride coming out to Tehran, had her entire trousseau ruined by her boxes falling into the water at this crisis of her journey. And, to multiply instances, the piano of another Tehran acquaintance could not be hoisted up that fatal bank, and lay for months at its foot, serving as a most convenient landing-stage for passengers. However, we were fortunate enough to escape all such mischances, and were soon packed into small and rickety carriages to drive the six miles to Resht.

My experiences in Constantinople had only prepared me in a very small degree for the inexpressible badness of this road, streaming with mud and water as it was. We bumped in and out of holes, were nearly overturned at exceptionally bad bits of the road, and my companion and I had to cling tightly to one another to save ourselves from being thrown out. Every moment I felt that our dilapidated vehicle must perforce come to pieces, or that the insecurely fastened wheels must succumb to the repeated shocks as we jolted painfully along, and it was a relief to reach the pretty town of Resht embowered in autumnal-tinted trees, the red tiled roofs of its houses giving it at a distance much the look of an English country village. We drove through street after street of bazaar, the long eaves of the houses nearly meeting overhead, and put up at a romantic-looking hotel, seemingly composed of stained glass and stucco work and standing in a garden of oranges.

The best room had a series of plaster medallions of the Madonna all round its walls, a somewhat incongruous adornment in a Mohammedan country, and mirror-work in plaques upon the ceiling, while its windows gave on to a large blue tiled tank full of goldfish. The English Consul and his wife showed us much hospitality during our two days' visit here, and we were specially glad of their company on the second day, when it poured incessantly, for this real Resht weather made the pretty hotel feel very damp and chilly, many of the little stained glass window-panes being broken. When we dined at the Consulate on the wet night we arrived disgracefully early, as our carriages came to the hotel long before the time, the drivers insisting on our coming at once, saying they would not wait in the rain, and would return to their homes unless we did so !

Our hostess amused us by displaying an account-book kept by one of her Persian cooks, in which, as the man could not write, he had drawn everything in the funniest manner. For example, a special kind of oval meant eggs to the initiated, and specks piled up on a dish meant rice, while a jujeh, or chicken, posed as a quaint heraldic creature, totally unlike the ducks or pheasants delineated next to it. Mr. Preece, to cap this, told a story of how his cook con stantly entered " bottle of English Powder " in his accounts. Being asked what this was, he said it was a particularly good baking-powder, and he produced several empty bottles of Eno's Fruit Salts to explain his statement ! The next morning we were all ready to start at ten o'clock, but no carriages appeared till 12.30, the drivers merely remarking that they had felt sure we should not require them till that hour.

Mr. Churchill and his brother rode part of the way with us, as is the friendly custom in Persia, along a charming road bordered with rowans, birches, beeches, oaks, acacias, and pollarded willows, and having high hedges overgrown with ivy and maidenhair fern. Handsome little cattle wandered about among the trees, their humps being considered a delicacy when cured, and the one we got at Resht was our great standby on our way up to Tehran. The bridges here were peculiar, going up into a sharp point in the middle, the steep cobbled inclines being very slippery for the horses, which, however, galloped up and down them at a great rate. We passed " wattle and dab " houses with thatched roofs, strings of camels and donkeys, veiled women riding astride, and men in long coats, pleated at the waist, and wearing high astrachan caps.

Our destination that night was a great bare building opening on to a courtyard at the back, round which were the stables for the horses. We mounted a dirty staircase, with steps of abnormal steepness, and reached the balakhana, or upper story (our word balcony comes from this), where we were agreeably surprised to find a couple of clean rooms with matting on the floor, and actually tables and chairs. And now our servants showed to advantage. They unpacked our belongings, covering the floors with carpets, hanging up curtains before the draughty doors and windows, setting up our folding wrought-iron bedsteads, removing the leather covers from the enamelled basins which contained all our washing apparatus, and mounting the aforesaid basins on wooden tripods. All our bedding was carried in " Sykes' Tent Valises," an invention of my brother's, patented by the advice of the Manager of the Army and Navy Stores.

This valise is very handy, as, when unrolled on the camp bedstead, the bed is ready for use, the stout canvas of which it is made forming the mattress, and a bag at the head containing night things, dressing-gown, brush and comb, &c, which, if stuffed with clothes, acts as a bolster. In the morning the whole thing is merely rolled up and strapped — an operation taking about a couple of minutes. The " tent " part is a mackintosh sheet drawn up over the head from the feet, and kept off the face by iron supports which fit into the head of the bedstead. This is only necessary when sleeping in the open, but, on cold nights, I was glad to use the sheet as a quilt. By the time we had washed in our folding indiarubber baths, the servants had prepared us an excellent dinner of soup, pillau, woodcocks, stewed fruit and custard, everything done so briskly and willingly that it was a pleasure to be served by such men.

The meal was laid on our " Paragon " camp tables, ingenious arrangements of laths, string, and oilcloth, large, light, and strong, yet folding into an absurdly small compass. They had the advantage of being able to be repaired easily, and even if considerably damaged to be quite fit for use. Our chairs were the " Bavystock," which can be made into a lounge armchair at will, or fold up flat, and are the best all-round article for camp work that we ever came across. As the nights were very cold we had big wood fires, or iron basins of burning charcoal in our rooms, and my particular bedding consisted of a lahas or wadded cotton quilt, over my small mattress, three woollen sheets, and three thick blankets all doubled, with an ulster, dressing-gown, and thick cape added thereto. On the second day's march all the baggage was started off on the mules by half-past seven, and we ourselves mounted the sorry post-horses about ten o'clock, and slowly wound up among the hills.

They were thickly wooded with birches, beeches, chestnuts, and acacias, all gorgeous in their autumn golds and scarlets and pinks ; masses of maidenhair fern and harts' -tongue clustered about pretty waterfalls, and here and there long grass " rides " stretched away among the trees, reminding us much of the New Forest. Very soon the steep parts of the road began. At times we had to climb veritable precipices, the horses finding foothold up these stony staircases with marvellous skill. For my part I did not attempt to guide my steed, but gave him his head, clung on to his mane, and fervently trusted that he would not slip back. I should have much preferred to scramble up on foot, but this was impossible, as the whole place was a sea of liquid mud. Coming downhill it was far worse, however, as the horses had to pick their way over and among great boulders greasy with mire.

Fortunately they knew every step of the road, and were very clever at finding out the best places, frequently refusing to go where I wished, and if I persisted unwisely in forcing them against their will we invariably floundered into a series of big holes, so filled in with mud as to look all right to the uninitiated eye. They splashed along very slowly, probing each step before they trusted their weight to it, and being particularly cautious when we crossed the half-rotten plank bridges, and at intervals we got peeps through the forest of a long line of hills, flaming with rich colouring, the river flowing along below us in its broad bed. Just at the worst parts of the road we came upon ghastly mementoes of its difficulties. In one place lay a dead mule covered with mud, and I had to lash my startled horse vigorously to get him past it.

A few paces further on we nearly stumbled over a defunct donkey lying across the track, and had hardly passed this when we came upon great camels mangled by the vultures and crows, horrible and pitiable sights. Half-way through the day we descended into the river bed, where we halted and lunched to stimulate us to brave the further dangers of the road, which soon wound up again among the hills. We kept meeting trains of heavily laden pack-animals, and on these occasions I rode close behind my brother, who flicked them to one side of the path with his long hunting lash, their loads being carefully avoided by the seasoned traveller, as they could easily knock him out of his saddle. Mr. Preece told a tale of being met close to a river by two mules laden with packing-cases. One came on either side of his horse, and he was lifted bodily out of his saddle and flung right into the water !

That day we forded the Rud Safed (White River), and other rivers no less than five times, the water being occasionally unpleasantly deep, owing to the late rains. It was an odd sensation for me, as my horse never seemed to make any progress, looking, to my inexperienced eye, as if it were being carried down stream, and I invariably had a curious feeling of dizziness. We got to fairly level ground before we reached our destination, Rustemabad, where we left the rainy zone of Resht behind us for good, and now saw real Persian scenery— bare hills rising up from sandy valleys scantily sprinkled with scrub and tamarisk, and snow-clad peaks in the distance. All the chapar khanas, or post-houses, as far as Tehran had been wonderfully smartened up, as the British Minister and his party had preceded us by some three weeks, and in some of them the rough plaster walls were entirely covered with scarlet Turkey twill, which looked cosy and cheerful.

For the most part the beams and thatch forming the roof were left unplastered, and I always suspected that it was from there that unpleasant nocturnal visitors dropped down upon us, consisting of three species, each one worse than the last 1 The unwelcome presence of so many bedfellows, however minute, was not conducive to slumber, and I could often have echoed the words of the Frenchman tormented in a like manner, who exclaimed : " Ce nest pas la piqure dont j e me plains, c'est la promenade ! " Our third day's march was disagreeable, the high wind blowing clouds of dust into our faces, and the road very steep in parts, quite dry, however, except through the little villages, which were a sea of slush between their booths. The heat of the sun forced us to wear double Terai hats and blue goggles, and it was a pleasant change when about half-way we reached the olive-groves of Rudbar, the only ones in Persia, and lay under the trees for lunch, the servants squatting down, opening their cooking boxes, and producing omelets, potato-cakes, and fasanjan in a wonderfully short time.

This favourite Persian dish is composed of bits of meat steeped in a black compound of liquid fat, pomegranate juice and many other condiment, and is eaten with chilau, or plain boiled rice, but is by no means to the liking of every one. The remarkable celerity displayed by the servants was partly due to the fact that there were three cooks among them, who took it in turns to prepare our meals, and were keen rivals. Shortly after remounting we reached a precipitous descent, with a stream running down among the boulders which formed the pathway, and were met by a string of laden mules, escorted by a couple of men on horseback. One man's steed got alarmed, kicked out wildly, and would have rolled with its owner over the precipice if the latter had not sprung off promptly and then held on firmly to its bridle.

The experiences of the day before had quite hardened me by this time, and I was positively surprised at finding that I was able to ride down places never imagined even in my wildest dreams, with scarcely a tremor, which was something to one who had always been a timid horsewoman. We crossed various streams, traversed some stony ground, saw a few skeletons of pack-animals by the roadside, went over the great Menjil bridge, notorious for the high wind always encountered upon it, reminding us in this respect of a famous bridge near Tarascon, and reached our halting-place, which we were warned was a nest of thieves. Here Mrs. Stainton was surprised to see her favourite servant putting a large parcel under her pillow as he arranged her bed, and on her inquiring what this might be, he said it was a purchase of clothing for himself, which he had placed there in safety for fear of robbery !

Next day the hills were very fine, composed of a sort of detritus, rising up in wild shapes, perfectly barren, save for a little tamarisk scrub, but tinted in all shades of brown and yellow and crimson, and the river Chinar ran at their feet. As usual the weather was superb ; brilliant sunshine, cloud less blue skies, and a purity of atmosphere that enabled us to see the smallest details at a great distance. After cloudy England, this clearness was most deceptive, as objects several miles off seemed quite close, merely a five minutes' walk or so. In this country a panorama of over a hundred miles in extent may be enjoyed from the top of a mountain, as, for example, the Caspian Sea may be seen from Mount Demavend. Often at the commencement of a day's march, if over level country, the halting-place for the night, some thirty odd miles away, can be clearly discerned, and as mile after mile is traversed, the traveller does not seem appreciably nearer to his goal than when he started to reach it.

We found the post-horses worthy little animals, carrying us over places that an English horse would not dream of attempting. As a rule, we went at the rate of about three miles an hour, slowly plodding over stony ground, my brother and I walking as fast as the horses when we dismounted at intervals to have a change of motion ; and indeed our steeds were so covered up that it was difficult to urge them on, as they were impervious to ordinary gentle reminders. Our fifth day's march was the critical one, as there is always a fear of a snowstorm blocking the Kharzan Pass, in the Elburz Range, which we were about to cross. We got up at five o'clock that morning, and everything was packed and ourselves mounted by half-past seven, winding up and down the hills in the cold grey dawn, getting higher and higher, until we reached the snow-line.

Fortunately there was not much snow on the track, but what there was had become a mass of frozen ice, over which our horses floundered nervously, and it took us some hours to struggle to the summit of the pass, where a great circle of snow covered mountains stood up round us, somewhat resembling the majestic panorama seen from the Gornergrat. The day was bright, but a bitter wind was blowing ; so we did not enjoy the fine sight as much as we should otherwise have done, especially as the wind pierced our wraps as if they had been made of paper. Low hill after low hill was crossed, and at last we got free of the snow and reached Mazrah, our lunching-place, about half-past one, all feeling very ready for a meal after the early breakfast. From here we made our way to Agha Baba, a picturesque village with castellated mud walls and round towers ; and, as we approached, the flocks and herds were entering its gates.

From one side the buff, brown, or black sheep, with intelligent faces, long ears, and enormous tails, were streaming in, accompanied by shaggy goats, resembling miniature bears, and followed by the prettiest of donkeys ; while from the left little dark brown and black cattle approached, much like those in the Highlands. The setting sun was flooding the whole scene in a rosy light, glorifying the mud walls of the village, beautifying its dirty though picturesque inhabitants, and casting a glamour and enchantment over the most sordid detail of the picture before us. We were now on the great Iranian Plateau, stretching from here right down south of Kerman, keeping a height of 4,000 to 6,000 feet, thus ensuring the traveller one of the most superb climates in the world, bracing, exhilarating, and free from great extremes of heat and cold.