'Through Persia on a side-saddle' [‎122] (153/360)

122 THROUGH PERSIA ON A SIDE-SADDLE
soldiers to extort it from the heir, who was from home at
the time. The men ransacked the house, turning the
women out of doors, two of whom died from the cold and
starvation consequent on their exposure during the winter,
and carried off everything, even to the doors of the rooms.
The unfortunate heir was imprisoned for two years, and
on his release the Shah graciously gave him back his
dismantled dwelling, saying, " We are not savages, and so
will not take everything from you."
The man returned to his home a beggar; no one dared
greet or speak to him, and in his despair he was on the
verge of committing suicide when his eye was caught by
an old wooden chest, the single piece of furniture left in
the pillaged house. He remembered having hidden ten
thousand gold pieces in this same chest, which contained
the shrouds of his family kept there in readiness for their
obsequies, but he could hardly summon up courage to lift
the lid, so fearful was he lest this last gleam of hope should
be extinguished. Marvellous to relate, however, the
money was there, the piety of the captain of the soldiers
having prevented the shrouds from being disturbed.
But the troubles of this sorely-tried man were by no
means ended. He had wealth, but it would have re
mained with him for barely a day if he had dared to
display it. Therefore he was obliged to resort to the
stratagem of battering one of his coins till the inscrip
tion was obliterated, and then selling it for less than
half its value to a Jew, telling him that he dug it up
by chance. And so for years he was forced to live
like a beggar, keeping no servants, and disposing of his
coins one by one to buy the commonest food. His dead
father had left him many villages; but the soldiers had