The Throne of Solomon
from one of the daughters, and managed the operation wit
remarkable neatness, in a manner suitable to the drawing
room.
I spent the day in this family atmosphere while the squii
told me about the Bolsheviks who came up as far as Bijen
in 1920, and murdered his brother and carried off 150 sheej
These were really the local marauders we had been hearinj
of before, but the name covers a multitude of sins and
in all this country, Bolsheviks are still spoken of wid
intense hatred; much propaganda will be necessary befon
they are looked upon with any kindness. These raids wer<
the last events of any importance in the district apart from the
Sipahsalar's suicide, and they have remained fixed in th<
minds of the people, for now that the country is at peace,
village life has become complete stagnation as far as the smal
seigneurs are concerned. They have not yet learned to take
any real trouble over their estates; the habit of opium saps theii
energy and prevents even the effort of hunting in the moun-
tains; all they do is to sit in their rooms receiving visitors,
talking endlessly, and hearing bits of news from far around.
In the next room, their female household also sits in idleness,
waiting upon any stray command: and when the winter closes
down, they retire to the windowless refuge of the interior,
bring out the " kursi" over the central sunken fireplace, and
continue to talk till the snow melts again.
The squire of Bijeno was a reader. We spent the evening
over the history of Alexander and over Memoirs of the Boxer
Rising, translated into Persian from the French—a strange waif
of a book that I came upon again in a wild part of Luristan,
amusing the leisure hours of a tribal chief. But the history of
Alexander is appropriate enough anywhere between die Nile
and the Indus, where that unique and undefeated conqueror
passed in a trail of splendour that has not yet abandoned his
['336]