LETTER xxi THE BAZARS OF BURUJIRD 131

and Kussian sugar-loaves, to the sale of -which, several
shops are exclusively devoted.

Persian manufactures are chiefly represented by
heavy cottons, dyed and stamped at Isfahan, carpets,
saddles, horse and mule furniture, copper cooking utensils,
shoes of all makes, pipes, kalians, rope, ornamented
travelling trunks, galon, gimps, tassels of silk and wool,
and "small wares" of all kinds, with rude pottery, oil jars,
each big enough to contain a man, great water-jars, small
clay bowls glazed roughly with a green glaze, guns,
swords, pistols, long knives, and the tools used by the
different trades.

Altogether the bazars look very thriving, and they
were crowded with buyers. Possibly the people have
rarely if ever seen a Feringhi woman, and they crowded
very much upon me, and the escort drove them off in
the usual fashion, with sticks and stones. Though much
of Burujird lies in ruins it has a fair aspect of prosperity
and'some very good houses and new buildings. The
roads are cobbled with great stones, and are certainly not
worse than those of the older parts of Tihran. Water is
abundant.

Nature evidently intends Burujird to be a prosperous
city. The pasturage of the plain is magnificent, and the
rich soil produces two crops a year. All cereals flourish.
Wheat and barley ripen in July. Seven sorts of grapes
grow, and ripen in August and September, and some of
the clusters are finer than any of our hothouse produce.
Water and musk melons, tobacco, maize, gourds and
cucumbers, beans, the Iringal or egg plant, peas, flax and
other oil seeds, rice and cotton, apricots, walnuts, pome-
granates, and peaches testify to the excellence of the soil
and climate.

Not only is Burujird in the midst of an exceptionally
fine agricultural district, but it is connected by caravan