Manuscript of Persia and the Persian Question (Continued) [‎44r] (87/690)

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11 ri,Tr ij mnT^r mvini
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same year, JlwfPj E-awlinson returned the numbers as 15,000.
In 1841, Uiijt.«]laion de Bode calculated the total as from 4,000 to
-5,000, while in the following year, dTrenterrastr Selby gave 8,000, and
Layard 10,000 as the probable figure. At the^present time, though
it has again become the capital, the population is estimated as not
more than 8 , 000 , and these are spread over an extent of ground that
w r ould accommodate five times that number, but is little else than an
indiscriminate pile of ruins. In a country remarkable for its dead
and dying cities, for immense groups of human habitations, either
wholly deserted or crumbling into irretrievable decay, Shuster earns
a well-merited palm. Not even Isfahan, with all its majestic
solemnity of ruins, can show, in proportion to its size, such heaps of
debris, so many structures fallen, falling, or abandoned. What were
once dwelling-houses are now formless mounds of brick, and many
of the buildings still inhabited are in an intermediate stage between ^
the two. -Mgn, fl n f ^
Fum, rUTrvuiias the nn^'iiling nlini 'irfi i inlii rT lln phun ,—
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, which twcoonted a wnrio-^jimm! of ihipnpnInT'iiiu < 11 n 11 -Br nriW] ^
S4u«falr ^^^Vrrd^n tlTt>-wttfnTn' no Chiltlge hfl^tnlron placa» A blight
seems to overhang the spot, and Shuler might well stand for what a
poet has dolefully styled the City of Dreadful Night. Among all
writers there has been an absolute consensus of opinion that this fall
of a once famous and inherently wealthy place has been due far less
to visitationSof nature than to the shameful iniquity and oppressions
of the Persian Governors who have successively ? been deputed t<) this
remote province, and have combined the'cruelty of an AlvaTwith the
* rapacTtyof a V er res'
Such, however, as it is, Shuster possesses features uncommon in
Persian towns. From the familiar clusters of low mud huts, it is
with relief as well as surprise that we come to a place where the
houses still standing are commonly of two stories, the lower half of
stone and the upper part of bricks embedded in clay, and that rise
to a height most unusual in Persian habitations. The flat roofs of
many of these edifices, which have a low parapet, and upon which
the inhabitants sleep at nights, are over thirty feet from the ground.
In the interior court there is commonly a large itetttt, or reception
chamber, one side of which opens, without either wall or doorway,
into the court. The houses possess a further peculiarity, which
redeems them from all risk of being forgotten. Shafts are pierced
in the masonry of the walls from the roof to the ground, opening
by an aperture or spout^to the street. They are the sole drain-pipe
of each dwelling, down which the refuse is inexpensively discharged
into the road vay, each vent being a nucleus of odours not less filthy
than the filth which it exudes. A receptacle is provided below by a
.—i 1 , —rrTTf'^^Trnr p
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