The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1897-12-16

easy 1t was difficult to be patient. Or
one occasion a stone was thrown, ther
) another The crowd opened out to give
facility for, the stoning. We dashed
inside the chapar-khanna. A dash was
made to follow. But when once oul
machines were safe-and we were always
! more careful of our machines than Ol
Ourselves-we would turn to the door
way, and, following the Hibernian ad
vice of when you see head, hit it.
let loose with our fists with all the ener.
gy we possessed.
| When the doors were barficaded, we
would look around. The room was
grimmed with smoke, and smothered in
dust First of all, we ordered wood
fire. for the nights in Persia are cold
| There was always trouble in finding
wood; when ablaze, the smoke ;,carly
suffocated us. We told the postmaster
| to bring rugs.
Rugs" he exclaimed; there isn't
such a thing in the village"
Go and fetch rugs" we would reply,
and, look here, make your boy prepare
tea at once; and in an hour and a half
you must boil us lot of rice, and fetch
us Ill dozen pomegranates.'
In vain he protested that ii was ini-
possible.
"Go!" we roared. and Selling him.
we gave him push on his way.
He brought the things.
1t was absolutely necessary to be de-
termined and bullying. At first we
tried gentleness and persuasion. The
result was we starved. A Persian re-
spects you if he fears you.
We never secured much variety in
food. We generally asked for mutton.
But to secure, mutton in Persia one
must usually buy the sheep aliya and
the killing, skinning, dressing and cook
ing occupies too much time when three
men are irritable with hunger.
We rarely paid more than II cents
for leg of mutton. One of us prepar-
Ell nice ember fire, while smother
hacked the joint into one-ouncc NOR
sels. These were threaded on n wire,
and then, twisted and twirled over the
red ashes, were cooked. This method
OF preparing mutton was n favorite one
with US.
Often we had fowls, paying 10 cents
apiece for them. Indeed, to be strictly
accurate, we nearly always had fowls,
BECAUSE they were easily obtainable,
whereas mutton seldom was. and we
did not care to embark ON the wholesale
extravaganza of buying q live sheep, for
which we would have to pay half a
dollar.
The Persians are not bigotcd Moham-
nlcdans, and frequently we had food m
native houses. Removing our shoes,
we squatted on the floor, sitting tailor
fashion. A big tray piled with rice
would be in the center. Knives, forks
and spoons are not used there so every
body eats with his fingers. 1t is hard
Mt first. to eat rice without making Il
hash of yourself and the floor. But
after while you succeed in kneading
little ball. This Is rested on the
fore part of the fingers, raised 10 the
mouth, and finally shot in with the
thumb. After you have had lot of
rice, green, shiney stews are placed be-
fore you, and you dive in your fingers
OF sherbet stands by, and you all drink
from the same spoon. 1t is quite the
proper thing for the host to pick some
thing from your plate, which is al indi-
cation that there is no poison. Indeed,
at the house of one Persian gentleman.
he always took something FROM my plate
before | commenced eating myself. The
greatest mark of honor is when the
host discovers n tit-bit on his own
plate, and: holding it between his finger
and thumb, pops it into your mouth.
There were some regular experiences
on the road. At Tabriz we were pur-
sued by a bowling mob right through
the bazaars. We saw a couple of po-
licemen, or guards. or soldiers. or ruff
fians and requested them to show us
the way.
How much will you give usy' was
the first thing they asked. And there
we had to stand, bargaining what was
the price of their civility. Perhaps, after
all, there was nothing strange in this.
Every office in Persia goes TO the high
est bidder, and the town guards must
pay for their positions.
We rather expected trouble. leaving
the town; so we got couple of mount
ed soldiers to see us safe beyond the.
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