'Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of Persepolis, and journey from thence by Shiraz and Shapoor to the sea-shore. Description of Bussorah, Bushire, Bahrein, Ormuz, and Muscat, narrative of an expedition against the pirates of the Persian Gulf, with illustrations of the voyage of Nearchus, and passage by the Arabian Sea to Bombay.' [‎175] (206/582)

TO GOOLPYEGAN.
175
Se, a name given to a cluster of villages with their fields and
gardens, in one of which we noted an old high mound that had
probably been the site of some ancient castle, and originally
given the place its present name. We found the people here
more than usually inquisitive, and far more impertinent in their
replies than we had yet experienced on the road. A small ca
ravan of Zuwars, or Pilgrims, going to the tombs of Imam Ali,
and Imam Hussein, had halted here on their way from Kashan,
from which they had been six days on their journey, and they
made to us the same complaint of the unusual incivility of the
people of Giaour-Se.
In the course of the day, though travelling through a plain
covered with excellent soil, abounding in villages, population,
and cattle, we had met not less than fifty families, in different
parties, emigrating from their homes, on account of want, and
going towards Hamadan and Kermanshah to seek a subsistence.
Some of these were in a state of great apparent wretchedness,
and among them were little naked infants of three or four years
old, walking along, barefoot with the rest, on a stony road. The
cooking utensils and bedding, which comprised all their move
ables, were divided among the members of the family, while the
husband and the wife carried each a young child or two at their
backs. From general report it appeared, that for the last three
years there had been a deficiency of rain in this part of Persia,
called Irak-Aj am, extending from Ispahan to Kermanshah; and
that in the central part of this space, about Goolpyegan, there
had been absolutely none; so that all the productions of the
earth had been retarded, and every necessary of life was at a
price beyond the reach of the poor. The parched and dry state
of the soil in the parts we had traversed had been constantly
remarked by us, as well as the anxiety with which the peasants
looked towards the approaching season of the rains. The flocks
had not diminished, as they had found sufficient browzing on the
mountains, nor were the fruits deficient, as the gardens were all