130 JOURNEYS IN PEESIA LETTER ssi

It seems as if Burujird were destitute of cavalry, at
least of n\en who can be spared, though it has been
stated that a whole cavalry regiment is in garrison.1

The Governor promised three escorts; my modest
request was for one sowar, and a very unmilitary-looking
horseman has arrived for me, but now, within an hour of
marching, the others are without even one!

Attended by the Hakim and an escort, we rode yester-
day through Burujird. To write that a third of it is in
ruins is simply to write that it is a Persian town. It
has crumbling mud walls, said to be five miles in circum-
ference, five gates in bad repair, and a ditch, now par-
tially cultivated.

It is situated in Lat. 33° 55' N, and its Long, is 48°
55'E. Its elevation is 4375 feet [Bell]. Its popula-
tion is estimated at from 12,000 to 18,000, and includes
a great many Seyyids and mollahs. It has a Persian
Telegraph Office and Post Office, neither of them to be
depended upon, six large and very many small mosques, a
number of mosque schools, thirty-three public baths, and
six caravanserais. It manufactures woollen goods, carpets,
and the best araJc to be found in Persia. It also pro-
duces dried fruits and treacle made from grapes.

The bazars are large, light, and well supplied with
European goods, Eussian and English cottons in
enormous quantities, Austrian kerosene lamps of all
descriptions and prices, Eussian mirrors, framed
coloured engravings of the Eussian Imperial family,
Eussian 'samovars, tea-glasses and tea-trays, Eussian
sewing and machine cotton, American sewing machines,
Eussian woollen cloth, fine and heavy, Eussian china,

1 Throughout the part of Persia in which I have travelled I have observed
a most remarkable discrepancy between the numbers of soldiers said to
garrison any given place, and the number which on further investigation
turned out to be actually there. It is safe to deduct from fifty to ninety
per cent from the number in the original statement!