Manuscript of Persia and the Persian Question (Continued) [‎42r] (83/690)

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■feHikVBo Fno^r a niibn¥ oi^qiiii»
deposit me at Shuster before noon on the following day. But my
credulity had already been overstrained by his frequent promises that
I should accomplish the whole journey in less time than had now
been consumed upon half; while a simple mathematical calculation
showed that no engineer^! the world could take the Susa up to
Shuster in the!specifiediime. I therefore decided to leave the boat
and ride the ^mrnWg distance, instructing the Susa to follow as
best she cpald^T%utenant Selby’s report contains the amazing
statementythat tho^banks of the canal at Bimd-i-Kir “ tower perpen
dicularly overh^ara. to a height of 130 feet,’<^an error which has been
faithfully reproduced by Mr. AinsworthJ.' It was up a bank of
considerably less than -tfewiy feet in height that I scrambled, and
made my way to the nearest hovels. The villagers at first said that
all their animals were out ploughing, and that they could let me
have neither horses nor mules. But the magic name of the Nizam-
es-Sultaneh, brought to bear upon the Sheikh—a benign old gen
tleman with well-dyed red beard—produced a startling revulsion of
attitude, and I was promised the use of one horse and two mules for
the morrow at the exorbitant rate of 12 krans each (7 shillings),
the normal charge per diem being 3 or 4 krans. However, beggars
cannot afford to be choosers; the bargain was concluded ; the Susa
puffed off into the night, and I settled down as best I could in a
mud hut, placed at my disposal by the Sheikh. A fire was lit on
the floor in the middle of the room, which was sufficiently laro- e to
accommodate a good deal of smoke, as well as the Sheikh and ’his
attendants, who, until requested to retire, seemed anxious to g’ive
me their company throughout the night. ( ^ * 1
was called at 4 a.m.. and started at 5. The
sun did not rise for two hours, but there was a good moon, and
happdy the air was not cold. From Bund-i-Kir to Shuster there
are three tracks by land, following respectively the left, tlie centre,
and the right of the island formed by the two streams of the Sh&teit
and the G^rg^r, which separate at Shuler just as they reunite at
Bund-i-Kir. I was conducted by the left or westernmost track, which
is a full eight farsakhs, or thirty-two miles, in length, and is called
Beni Hassan from the name of the Arab tribe encamped upon it.
e middle road is called Beni Kaid Hassan for a similar reason,
and is no doubt shorter, but appears to be impassable after rain!
1 he easterly track, which was taken by Colonel Bell, strikes across
to the right to DtwOatabad, or Beni Daud, a distance of eleven miles,
where it touches the right bank of the G^rg^r Canal, and follows'
the latter more or less closely to Shuler, twenty-one miles further on.
\ r 7?- ^
_ urna ^ °f ^ ie Omyitiphimf Society, vol. xiv., p. 241.
(2) The liiver Kamn, p. 40.