'Through Persia on a side-saddle' [‎110] (141/360)

no THROUGH PERSIA ON A SIDE-SADDLE
water which rushes down the hills when the snow melts
were adopted, the sterility prevailing in many parts of
the country would be greatly lessened.
By the middle of May the opium crop, one of the
principal products of Kerman, was quite ready. The
white petals having fallen off, the big calyx heads were
scored four times with a kind of steel comb, the juice that
oozed out being collected, dried, and kneaded into small
lumps for exportation. During this operation the whole
vicinity of the town became so impregnated with the smell
of the drug as to make one feel quite sleepy when passing
near the fields of poppies; and we were told that the
innocent-looking flowers were a curse to the place, many
of the women having become confirmed opium-smokers,
and cases among our own servants showing us the fatal
power of the drug when abused.
Towards the end of April Mr. Carless, one of the
missionaries from Isfahan, came for a couple of months to
Kerman, as he wished to see whether the latter town would
prove a good field for missionary enterprise. It was a
great thing to have an Englishman with us on the oc
casion of the Queen's Birthday; and to do honour to
the event we gave the servants a big feed of pillau,
over the distribution of which Nasrullah Khan presided
to see that no unfairness took place. He quoted a Persian
proverb to show me the strong feeling that this meal might
have power to arouse: "All pains can be forgotten in
forty days, but the pain of having been defrauded of food
lasts for forty years ! "
Mr. Carless had brought a native apothecary with him,
and the garden of his house in the town was always
crowded with applicants for medical assistance. He