'Military Report on South-West Persia, Including the Provinces of Khuzistan (Arabistan), Luristan, and Part of Fars' [‎106] (145/466)

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They believe in amulets and charms ; the former they will solicit for them
selves and their children, and the latter to induce child birth, to bring back the
lost love of a husband, &c. The amulets are chiefly sown into the head dress,
and take the form of coins and ornaments of gold and silver. It is believed
that the child to whom the amulet is given becomes the recipient of the fortune
of its giver (see page 10).
The men content themselves with sowing and reaping, cutting wood
for charcoal, defending their property, and seem to consider robbery and
war their proper occupation, and are never so well pleased as when engaged
on a foray [Rawlinson) [see pages 95,97).
To a European it is an unaccustomed sight to see, those he would esteem
to be ladies, i .e., the wives of a chief, packing their tents and loading their
baggage animals unassisted.
Their villages are collections of poor mud or reed huts with flat roofs.
. Each hut or series of huts is connected with a yard into
which the cattle are driven nightly. But few houses of a
better class are met with ; these consist of several courts, surrounded by a blank
wall. The only furniture consists of carpets, often valu-
Hollses • able; rugs, candle lamps, and brass trays for serving food.
Mower gardens are not cultivated ; fruit gardens are laid out with no
care, and are no better than orchards overgrown with shrubs and often
weeds.
The inhabitants of south-west Persia are frugal eaters; the food of
Food the poor consists of " nan, i.e., a leavened cake of wheaten,
barley, acorn or other Hour baked in an oven and mast or
curdled milk. Buttermilk forms their chief drink. Cheese, butter, clarifipd
butter, eggs, onions, rice, cucumbers, lettuce, and fruit are sufficiently cheap to
be afforded by all. Meat is not generally eaten. Kabobs can be procured in the
cook shops of towns and large villages. Upon such a diet they can undergo long ,
and continuous fatigue.
The repasts of the rich are more varied. Their chief meal is made after
dark, about 9 or 10 p.m ., and consists of curds, cheese, salads, &c., following by
rich stews eaten with rice or rice and peas and Mutton stewed with
plums is a very favourite dish. They drink buttermilk, sherbets of limejuice,
or of a syrup composed of vinegar and barley sugar. Tea served with
limejuice and sugar is drunk several times during the day. The tea is made
in a tea kettle which is kept boiling, and is of excellent quality. Coft'ee is
drunk, black, by thimblefuls. It has quite given place to tea.
The morning meal, served about noon, consists of fried eggs, salads, mast,
cheese, nan and sherbet, and perhaps ^pillau of fowl or mutton or roast fowl. Ice
when procurable is in general use. Sweetmeats and cakes are largely consumed.
The Lur dialect, much akin to the Kurdish spoken about Karmansbah, is
Language. generally intelligible to those who know Persian. It 18
spoken by the whole, family of Lurs with local modiiica-
tions. Turki is generally understood by all Lurs. ,
Sir H. Rawlinson considers the dialect to be derived from the old Fam,
which was co-existent with, but distinct from, the Pehlevi. The Kasgbai is
;a Turkish-speaking family. So are all Lurs more or less. . ;
Religion, —The Bakhtians and the Lurs generally profess to be S iiy a
Muhammadans. They seem to be in no way fanatical; their chiefs, in a P a r0
nizing way, are fond of observing that their religion assimulates to the Christian
faith up to the time of the birth of Muhammad and that his coming
foretold in the New Testament [see pages 10, 92, 93).