The Press., 1888-05-10
DONKEYS OF PERSIA.
DIMINuTlvE BODIES AND AN OVER
 SHADoWlNG WEALTH OF EARS.


 DIMINuTlvE BODIES AND AN OVER
 SHADoWlNG WEALTH OF EARS. PeCuliarities of the Little Beasts in the
 Shah's DOminions-The Donkey in the
 Army-Extreme Cruelty fin Loading and
 Driving. The facetiousness of calling Persia the Land of the Lion and the Sun becomes ap- parent as soon one enters the country. Persia contains may be, 100 lions, while the iackasses number not less than 10, ,OOO O00 In no other country is the land so completely given over to the dominion of the jackaSs as in Persia Within the boundaries of the shah's dominions ears are trumps every time, and the universal music is the donkey's mel lifluous bray. Nasr-e-din reigns over more donkeys than he does human beings. Almost every Persian owns donkey, and many of them own whole droves. The population of Persia is estimated at 10, ,OOO, GOO souls Cur rent opinion at Teheran places the donkey population at about the same number. From personal observation along 2,000 miles of Persian road, I should have no hesitation in betting on that number. Reckoning each donkey's wealth of ear at two feet, twelve inches for each ear, the aural appendages of the shah's musical toilers would, if laid end to end, reach 4,OOO miles. I might have wheeled my 2,OOO miles along narrow car peting of donkeys ears.
 To such an extent has the jackass insinu- ated himself into Persion society that almost every infantry soldier in the army owns one. When ordered to march to some distant point an infantry regiment musterS almost as many donkeyS as men. The dOnkeyS do not belong to the government, but are the private property of the soldiers. When not required they are hired out to civilians. Sometimes two soldiers, even three, too poor to in- dulge in the luxury of jackass apiece, pool their wealth and buy one between them. The lot of these syndicate jackasses is any thing but enviable when on the march. The muskets and kits of the company are piled across his spine until he sagS like hammock. With breezy unconcern one of the joint stock company then perches himself on his trump. The other members of the syndicate follow behind and prod him along with their bayo- nets, each one of the three riding and walk ing by turns. Many of the soldiers carry their wives with them; these, too, piled on the donkeys' backs, so that regiment of Persian infantry on the march is sight not easily forgotten.
 INTERNAL COMMERCE.
 While the trunk line carriers of Persia are
 
 tue internal commerce of the country is car rien on on donkeys. Imported goods brought from Bushire or Trebizond are carried by mules or camels, but the cities are supplied with fuel and provisions by the donkeys of the peasantIy and carriers. All along the Persian roads passed drove after drove of donkeys laden with fuel, grain aud other produce, plodding toward the cities. Often those droves were so numerous as to suggest hocks of sheep, suggestion that is materi- ally heightened by their diminutive size. A gang of a dozen ryots would be driving be- fore them sometimes as many as a hundred | donlzeys. A mile or so ahead of these, across the open plain, would be seen another | drove, and a short distance back another. Many Persians make their living by employ | ing droves of donkeys in carrying grain and fuel from one district to another.
 As you near large city in Persia you can l look about you and see droves of donkeys streaming in along the various roads that center there like the spokes in a hub. Some | times as many as 10000 donkeys pass through the gates of Teheran in one day. Every gate is closed at dusk, and the droves of donkeys streaming cityward too late in | the evening to pass in accumulate by the hundred outside. In the morning when the gates are flung open the space is blocked up by struggling swarm of donkeys, their dri- | vers shouting vociferously and gesticulating wildly at the octroi officers to gain first ad- mittance.
 In, dealing with the donkey the Persian ryot or carrier regards him simply as @ means to an end; he never pauses to consider that the wretched jackass has any feeling. have seen the most diabolical cruelty prac- ticed on donkeys in Persia to persuade them into the performance of impossible tasks. l of nt,.U is thong with few inches of chain at the end. At the slightest provocation this is laid on with merciless severity. A still more favorite method of persuasion is to keep an open sore at some tender spot and prod him therein with a sharp stick.
 | DROVE OF DONKEYS
 Near Tabreez I overlook a drove of at least 100 donkeys laden with fuel. Thousands of donkeys pass their whole lives carrying camelthorn and tezek into Tabreez from the surrounding country. Some were well nigh invisible beneath small mountains of camel thorn, their loads being several times larger than themselves. To hold the big loads in place rough rope or rawhide breech straps were worn. These ill fitting trappings had in many instances see sawed their way into the flesh almost to the bone, and were still rasping deeper and deeper every day. FaI from considering this cause for humane treatment, the brutal drivers rather regarded the raw sores as handy places to prod with sharpened sticks.
 The roads on the Tabreez plain, near the city, have been worn down by the traffic oi these multitudes of donkeys that have daily passed in and out for many centuries, until they are deep trenches, in places deep enough below the general surface to hide mounted horseman. When a short distance off the road one can hear the big droves of donkeys passing without seeing any signs of life, and yet the country all around is an open leve plain. In urging the donkeys along, besides physical measures, the Persian utters a cry not unlike the bleating of a sheep. To stand off the "abreez roads and listen, an uniniti ated person might readily be excused fol thinking the pattering of feet and the bleat ing the noise of passing flocks of sheep The Persian donkey could scarce sink tc lower depths of degradation and misery than that in which he now exists. He is small eary-decidedly eary-and possessed of ( voice that, every time he explodes, seems tc be protesting against the accumulated l wrongs and indignities of past ages besides this, his owners attempt to improve on ma ture by slitting his nostrils open to tAt bridge bone. This is popularly supposed tt facilitate respiration, instead of which ii merely opens a passage for the flies to haras and dust to find it's way.-Thomas Stevens il New York Sun.
 | The Cleaner of Pipes.
 It is the custom in Turkey to have on'