Manuscript of Persia and the Persian Question (Continued) [‎40v] (80/690)

(tr.
S
oxen, pacing up and down an inclined plane on the top of the bank—
the immemorial custom of Elam and Chaldaca. The Arab camps or
villages, dependent for their existence on the water thus derived, are
situated on the very brink, and the entire population, not working
with the plough, would turn out to see us pass. Throughout the day
we traversed a country devastated by locusts. They sw r armed on the
banks and hung in red festoons from the twigs of every bush and
shrub; they dropped on tjffl the boat, scrambled into the cabin, and
straddled all over the deck; and the drowned bodies of those that
had not strength to cross the river floated in hundreds down the
stream.
'JMmxbrt The first place of the smallest importance after
leaving Ahwaz is the village of Waie/ on the left shore, which to a
line of mud huts fringing the bank adds the rare distinction of an
imamj.adeh and half a dozen -patuee. This village marks the northern
limit of Sheikh ^lizaTs jurisdiction, the territory beyond, though
largely peopled by Arabs, being under the direct administration of
the Governor of Arabistan. There is here a ferry across the river.
Wars'is about thirty^vo miles distant by water from Ahwaz$»the
river following a very serpentine course between ; allowing for which
circumstance it was still somewhat disquieting only to find myself
abreast of the village at 1 p.m. on the day after leaving Ahwaz, or
an hour later than the time at which I had been assured that I should
reach Shuster, still nearly sixty miles distant by river.
In the annals of earlier travellers Wttw has left a name for inhos
pitality, quite uncommon among the Arab tribes. It was the
furthest point reached in his navigation of the Karim River in May^
1831^ by the adventurous Mr. Stocqueler, whose boat was stopped,
plundered, and fired at by the sheikh and people of this place, and
compelled to beat a precipitate retreat to Mohammerah . 2 Five
years later, in November, 1836, Major Estcourt’s party, ascending
the river in a native boat from Ahwaz, were refused provisions by
the inhabitants, and were obliged fonuMy^to appropriate a sheep . 3
fjnV Ti ft
' . . .
uiiuIli uirtiiu biluuQ.
•W. F. Ainsworth’s Tersonal Narrative tie Jjaphrmfot
vol. ii..
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