El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-05-19
THE CORPSE ROAD.
BY THE DISTINGUI SHED AMERICAN
SCHOLAR, DIR SPEER.
Persia of Ancient Memories: the Route
OfXenophen: Inscriptions ofDarius
and the Home q the Kurds.

ON THE TIGRIS, S. S. BLOSSE LYNCH,
February 10, 1897.
1t is a grim name for a road, and l
is a grue. ONE thing to travel and t.
lodge with c0rpses for companions
But it is a name the highway from
Euphrates well deserves For centur
les streams of pilgrims nave pouret
down from the great plateau to the
| MesopOtamiau plain to worship at thu
tomb of Ali-the caliph aud the son-in
| law of MChammed-at Nejef. and t
bury their dead in the holy soil o
Kerbela, where Ais so1, Hussein
met martyrdOm. In past years The
pilgrims were numbered by multitudes
and the dead could scarcely rest well i
| not laid under the shadow of the
| shrines at Kerbela, whose sanctity ever
Mecca can scarce surpas5, but the
growing eXactions of Turkish custom
houses, the desire of the late Shah tC
secure for the shrine at Me5hed-with-
in his own dominions-the profit of the
pilgrima ges, the prohibition of the
Importation into Turkey of bodies late
ly deceased-thus giving the ardor and
enthusiasm of relatives time to cool,
have all tended to diminish the num-
Der of the dead whose bones jealous
friends carry over the many miles to
rest beside Hussien's. But even still,
the trave'e passes scores of the long
boxes. borne on horses or mules, each
of which contains the bones of a true
believer in the prophet.
Properly speaking, the Corpse road
IS not road, save here and there. 1t
is the trail or cOngeries of paths over
which caravans 90. from Persia to Bag
dad. converging in Persia near Ker
manshah, where from Teherap, Tabriz,
Hamadan and Ispahan, east, north and
south, conjoin. 1t is in the main the
trail over which the armies of Darius
aud Cyrus, Alexander and Seleucus
must have marched, and over which
the fervent armies of Islam drove the
last of the Chosroes until on the plains
of Nehavend Persia was subjected to
the Caliphate. Great history was made
on the mountains and plains over
which the Corpse road runs. Its pres
ent course may be traced by those who
wish to follow it upon the map, from
Hamadan through Assadabad, Kanga-
yer, Besjtun, Sahnah to Kermanshah
aud thence through Harunabad,
Keril d, Sarpul, Kasri Shirin, in Per-
STA, and Khanakin, Shahraban and
Yacub:eh in Turkey, to Bagdad and
which is two or three days
journey southwest Of the city of Caliphs.
When score of years ago the shah
of Persia made a pilgrimage to Ker-
bella, the road was put in good order,
bridges were built, boys were drained,
rocks were removed, and down the pre-
Il pitous side of the Z'grOs mountains,
where the plateau suddenly falls away
20 the low valleys which run out to the
prairies, good switch
back" road was constructed, protected
by stone walls. Traces of this benz
ficent wall remain, but nothing has
been done for the great highway since. |
In the winter the mountain sections
are like slippery precipices, and the |
plains great boys: but though trade |
has multiplied many fold, and the cost |
Of a good road would be repaid in ten |
years, nothing is done With that |
Of existing conditions, which is one of |
the fruits of the fatalism of Islam, |
traders, pilgrims and chavadors, who |
Ire the freight carriers, resign them |
selves to the facts. ''This is Persia"
hey say, or ''this is Turkey: what is
Jhe use?n
On the Persian side of the border,
he caravanserais have in the main
ALLEN into ruins. In many places
here were once durable brick inns.
Shah Abbas in his day built so many
IudI ChSIl SgOuC VI III IL n Ca Ill SluoCid al
5 attributed to him. From Kasr-i
5hirin to Meshed-or right across
says he planted
ire of caranvauserais to facilitate
rade travel, In Turkey the kahns are
ubstantia and capacious, with large
pen squares in the centre, around
which the brick stables are built, with
lrched recesses in the ponderous walls
,pen in front for the travellers. But in
Persia, on the Corpse road, and on
most of ,the roads, horses and men
ageps. West Of the Elveud NOUN
aims, which rise like great wall be
lind Hamadau. the country is all
Kurdish, and with Kurdish houses and
are the Corpse road wayfarer must be
ontent. 1t is low scale of life. In
many houses animals and people live
lear together, and in almost all they
inter- by the same door. The wo-
nan with ihe familiar spirit
whom Saul consulted at Endor, aud
Who had with her calf in the house"
las her parallel in most Kurdish wom
n. West of Kermanshah life falls
over aud lover to the border. At
'arpul, on the 5 tie of Holwan-one of
he great Persian cities in the days of
he Arab cOnqUest-the best room we
ould find, an earth structure with
Seu walls, pldSI6feu WIN one CCdJIng
# mud, was the vestibule to an inner
nd darker room occupied by a COW,
alf and u donkey, who got Dir and
light through our room, and passed to
nd fro through it. In many houses
he horses, cattle, sheep and donkeys
lad separate, unlighted rooms, while
he family or families lived on earth
Platforms a fOub high IL different cor
ers of the large room, lighted only
through the door. and passed through
" all the animals going in and out.
The furniture of most of these houses
5 OF earth. Flour, wheat and Oil are
,ept in earthenware pots, often of
treab size aud unbprred At Sarpul,
where there is little snow Or frCst, the
rain is put in a bale in the ground
md covered with snow until needed.
The house yards are sometimes honey
,ombed with the barley pits, where
hey are net begged with mud. On
he Turkish side of the border the peo-
de dress better, and live 10 more re-
pectable houses. There are oranges,
lates and vegetables to be bought. All