'Through Persia on a side-saddle' [‎310] (353/360)

310 THROUGH PERSIA ON A SIDE-SADDLE
fully. My brother got annoyed with Sultan Sukru for
staying so far behind us, but was mollified when that
faithful factotum explained that he and his steed had
already been down three times and the post-boy twice!
Next day we had to negotiate a long thirty miles to
Resht in order to catch our steamer, which left Enzeli on
the following mid-day, and as it had frozen during the
night we found the roads in a terrible condition, it being a
wonder that we did not follow the post-boy's example, who
fell in a heap with his steed at such short intervals that he
quite exhausted my sympathy, which had been active at
first.
After a while we came to the forest, and here the Russian
Road Company was at work, pulling up the old cobbled
causeway, which, with all its deficiencies, was certainly
preferable to the sea of liquid mud left in its stead.
Through this our unfortunate ponies waded, nearly toppling
on their heads, and my heart was often in my mouth as
we escaped again and again almost as if by a miracle, from
being rolled over into the foot-deep mire. The caravans
of small donkeys were coated with mud from head to foot,
and in one place a camel, left by its owner, was placidly
lying down in a mud bath, evidently considering death a
lesser evil than further struggles through such rivers of
slush. It was difficult to do much to the road with
caravans passing to and fro at short intervals, and the
crowds of Persians armed with shovels and pickaxes did
not appear to be bestirring themselves at all, though I
noticed a spasmodic activity among their ranks when the
dapper Russian engineer made his appearance, looking, in
his smart uniform, very much out of place amidst the
dirt and disorder around him. Primroses, violets, and