'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.' [‎259] (290/582)

A PARTY OF ROBBERS TAKEN PRISONERS. 259
to lead the way in some duty which others had imposed as a
punishment; and I never knew any such appeal to the pride and
better feelings, even of the commonest men, to fail.
O ct. 20th.—At daylight this morning, were brought in, as pri
soners, by our outscouts, twenty-eight robbers, all taken from a
village called Hadjeeabad, in the hills which bounded the plain of
Chemmen Asipass, on the south-west, or between it and the moun^
tains of the Chal Mahar. These people were pure Persians, and
their tribe are said to be great plunderers. Among them were
three with snow-white beards, and four or five not more than ten
years old. They were taken in the act of depredation by an out-
scout party of Shuker Ullah Khan's soldiers, and brought down
here on their way to Shiraz to be executed. They were all
mounted on asses, and had one leg placed in a large log of wood,
like a handle in the head of a wooden mallet. They were, how
ever, very merry, and seemed quite indifferent to their fate.
We departed from hence at sunrise, and though the robbers
had travelled all the previous night, they were not allowed to rest,
but were taken away with us. Our course went still to the east
ward of south, and the range of hills on our right now took a more
easterly turn. In an hour and a half after our setting out, we
ascended a pass called Kotel Mader e Doghter, or the Hill of the
Mother and Daughter. Its ascent was not exceedingly difficult,
though it was necessary to alight in consequence of the stony and
broken state of the road. Men were here sent out on each side
to reconnoitre ; and this service was again given to those in dis
grace, who murmured at it as a hardship. I again proposed to the
chief to try the opposite course, by selecting the bravest and best
behaved of the troops for the duty. The men were flattered and
pleased by the proposal, and the Khan was delighted at the success
of the experiment. Our descent over this pass on the other side
was exceedingly difficult: at the foot of it we entered a second
plain, lying east and west, and equally fertile with the former, but
of less extent.
2 L 2