'Report of Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Edward Stewart, Bengal Staff Corps, on Special Duty on the Perso-Afghan Frontier.' [‎138r] (31/80)

the road by the Meruk pass, which is a bad one, but shorter than that by which
I was travelling. I marched the next day to Nakab, a village distant 22 miles.
At one mile from Disg a small hamlet called Gomeh is passed, but it contained no
inhabitants at this season. At 12 miles a small hamlet, Badamistan, where some
nomads were encamped. At 18^ miles I reached a spring of good water called
Cha Mulla, and at 22 miles the village of Nakab. Although crops were growing
in the fields, we found the place entirely deserted by its inhabitants, except by one
aged couple, who professed entire ignorance on every subject under the sun. I left
the road and went to another small village, Dareh Charm, which we found also
deserted by its inhabitants, except by three or four women. Out in the fields we saw
a boy working, and managed to capture him. He was a young Arab, but could
speak bad Persian, and, being presented with a piece of money, showed us the way to
the village of Khulf, where there were a few inhabitants. Amongst them was a very
civil Turkoman merchant from the Merv country, who, as soon as I arrived, called
upon me and offered to get me supplies, &c. He was here collecting an odoriferous
gum which is exported to Bokhara. This gum is used in dyeing, in the Bokhara
country. When a pattern is to be left white on a coloured ground, the portion which
is to remain white is covered with this gum before the article is placed in the dye-
tub. It is very cheap in this part of the world, three and a half pounds of it being
sold for about 8^., while it is worth 8d. or 9d. a pound in Bokhara. It is, I
believe, the product of the wild pistachio tree, which is common in this neighbour
hood. It is also chewed by women, and is said to be good for the teeth. I
wondered whether it could be the substance sold in Europe under the name of oppo-
ponax. I halted the next day at this place, though I had a good deal of difficulty in
getting supplies even for my small party. The inhabitants of all the villages in the
neighbourhood are Arabs. They are nomads, inhabiting black goats’ hair tents,
and only occupy the villages in winter. In summer they wander about with their
herds. They all speak Arabic amongst themselves, but could speak Persian badly.
They said there were still about 1,500 tents or families who spoke Arabic, but
that part of their tribe had given up Arabic and become Persianized. They
claim the Amir of Kaian as an Arab, and I believe he really is of Arab descent.
These people said they had been brought from Arabia very many generations ago ;
they did not know by whom or when. They differed in no respect from the Bedouin
I had met in Northern Syria and Turkish Arabia A term used by the British officials to describe the territory roughly corresponding to, but not coextensive with, modern-day Iraq under the control of the Ottoman Empire. , except, I think, that they were
taller and heavier men than the Arabs usually are. Their manner was very different
from that of Persians; they were much more free and independent, though perfectly
civil.
On the 24th April I went back to Nakab to get on to the road to Birjand, as I
wanted to follow the regular road from the Ahinguran pass to that place, but it would
have been easier for me to have crossed over to Duruksh and to have got into the
road which goes from the Meruk pass. Duruksh is famous for its carpets, which are
the best of those made in this part of the world. From Nakab the road went over a
plain for 7^ miles, when the bed of a considerable river, the Fuk Hud, was
crossed. It, however, at this season contained no water. At 11 miles the large
village of Gask was entered. Here also very good carpets were made, and a number
were brought to me for sale, but I did not purchase any, as the carpets ma le in the
Birjand district have acquired a very bad name, in consequence of the people using
aniline dyes, and mixing cotton with the wool of which the carpets arc manufactured.
The whole road this day was at a very high level, varying from 5,400 to 6,800 feet,
even the plain being at an elevation of nearly 5,000 feet.
At 20 miles from our starting point the village of Sar-i-Cha was reached. This
village has a strong fort, which stands at an elevation of 6,700 feet above the sea.
The country passed over is very barren and poor, and the people could not support
themselves by agriculture; but Sar-i-Cha is celebrated all over Persia for two articles
manufactured here. One is a cloth woven of kurk, or the inner wool of the goat.
The long coarse hair of the goats is cut off, and the soft inner wool combed out with
an iron comb. A very fine and soft material is obtained from this wool. The other
article for which Sar-i-Cha is celebrated is coloured socks, both of cotton and wool,
which are here largely manufactured. Every man, woman, and child in the place is
perpetually employed, even when walking about, in knitting these socks, which are of
very brilliant patterns. Most of the inhabitants belong to the new sect called Babis.
They are followers of Aly Muhammad, of Shiraz, commonly called A1 Bab. This sect
is widely spread in Persia, and has given a great deal of trouble to the Government,
by whom it is terribly persecuted. A1 Bab, who was born in 1824, after living some