'Through Persia on a side-saddle' [‎74] (105/360)

THROUGH PERSIA ON A SIDE-SADDLE
and at once agreed to stay with us, we being only too.
delighted to welcome him, more especially as he was the
only European besides ourselves in the place. He was in
treaty for the ancient carpet in the famous shrine of Shah
Niamatullah at Mahun, some twenty miles from Kerman;
but so intricate are the ways of Oriental bargaining that it
was over a month before he got it into his possession.
This carpet, which I saw later on, had been presented to
the shrine by Shah Abbas in the sixteenth century, and
was much worn and cut up into as many as thirty pieces,,
which the Persians had re-joined with no regard to the
pattern. But in spite of being nearly threadbare, so that
the original colours were difficult to discern, one could not
but admire the design of grand medallions on a dark
crimson ground, filled in with leaves and branches, and
bordered with verses in Persian characters on a series of
oblongs. Cruelly as it had been treated, yet the lovely
yellows, rich reds, and indigos were still undimmed in
places, and now it must be the pride of the museum to
which its possessor presented it.
On our arrival at Kerman the weather was very un
settled for some time, and nearly every afternoon we had
the by no means agreeable experience of a sand-storm.
The sky would become quite dark, and a thick yellow
cloud would advance towards us, blotting out the entire
landscape even to the trees in the garden below. The
servants would rush to shut all the windows and doors,
but the puttyless panes of the former and the ill-fitting
fastenings of the latter were but a poor protection against
fine sand. Another moment, and we would hear the cloud
break against our barriers with an odd gritty swish, leaving
floors, books, and ornaments covered with a thick layer of