LETTER xxi THE GOVERNOR OF BURUJIRD 129

the effect was so magical that the next day he looked a
different man.

An arrangement was made for returning the visit,
and he received us in a handsome tent in a garden, with
the usual formalities, but only a scribe and the Hakim
were present. A sowar, sent from Burujird with a letter
to the Sahib, was undoubtedly robbed of his horse, gun,
and some of his clothing en, route. Very quietly the
Governor denied this, but as he did so I saw a wink
pass between the scribe and Hakim. It was a pitiable
sight,—a high official sitting there, with luxuries about
him, in a city with its walls, embankments, and gates
ruinous, the brickwork in the palace gardens lying in
heaps, his province partially disturbed, the people rising
against what, at the least, are oppressive exactions,
raising an enormous tribute, from which there is no
outlay on province or city, government for the good of
the governed never entering into his (as rarely into any
other Oriental) mind.

This evening he has made a farewell visit on the
terrace, attended by the HaMm. Aziz Khan stood on
the edge of the carpet, and occasionally interjected a
remark into the conversation. I have before said that
hg has a certain gentlemanliness and even dignity, and
his manner was neither cringing nor familiar. The
HaJclm, however, warned him not to speak in presence
of the Governor, a restraint which, though very different
from the free intercourse of retainers with their chiefs
among the Bakhtiari, was in strict accordance with the
proprieties of Persian etiquette. Aziz stalked away,
shaking his wide shulwars, with an air of contempt.
" This governor," he afterwards said, " what is he ? If
it were Isfandyar Khan, and he were lying down, my
head would be next to his, and twenty more men would
be lying round him to guard his life with ours."

VOL. II K