'Through Persia on a side-saddle' [‎63] (94/360)

TO THE GOAL OF OUR JOURNEY VIA YEZD 63
Our next march was to Bahramabad, and as we could
not find a good place at which to halt for breakfast, my
brother decided to go to Mehdiabad, a small village at
some distance from the road, where he had spent a night
with the Farman Farma (a Persian prince, formerly
Governor of Kerman), two years ago at the house of its
owner, Mahomet Khan. The villagers, however, said that
the garden was no longer in good order, and took us into
a dirty courtyard, full of women and young children,
which they declared was the identical place of which
we were in search. As we were remounting our horses
in disgust, my brother's old friend suddenly appeared,
gesticulating furiously and calling out hearty welcomes.
He insisted that we should lunch with him, and, leaving
a servant to conduct us to his house, disappeared on
hospitable thoughts intent. The entrance to his mansion
was, as is customary in Persia, of the shabbiest, and we
waited for him in an untidy courtyard, with dilapidated
rooms built round it, his biroon, or outside dwelling-place,
where he would receive all visits of ceremony or business.
After a while he reappeared, and seizing my brother's
arm with effusion (he obviously disapproved of poor me!)
led us along passages into a prettily laid-out garden, with
a tank in the centre, round which were the living-rooms
or anderoon. Pulling aside a curtain, we found ourselves
in his drawing-room, white-plastered and alcoved, with a
row of windows along one side, opening on to the garden,
their glassless panes being filled in with fine white linen.
The furniture consisted of two sets of big cushions on either
side the windows, where we were invited to seat ourselves,
while the floor was laid with felts, covered with lengths
of a gaudy cotton material. At one end was a fireplace.