Journeys In Persia And Kurdistan ( Vol.Ii).

106 JOURNEYS IN PERSIA LETTEE sx

number of retainers armed with long guns standing round
the edge of the carpet. He was well dressed, but a
savage in speech and deportment. As to the dress of
the Bakhtiaris, the ordinary tribesmen wear coarse cotton
shirts fastening at the side, but generally unfastened, blue
cotton trousers, each leg two yards wide, loose at the
bottom and drawn on a string at the top, webbing shoes,
worsted socks if any, woollen girdles with a Kashmir
pattern, and huge loose brown felt coats or cloaks with
long sleeves, costing from fifteen to twenty-five Jcrans each,
and wearing for three or four years. The Khans fre-
quently have their shulwars of black silk, and wear
the ordinary Persian full-skirted coat, usually black, but
"for best" one of fine blue or fawn cloth. All wear
brown or white felt sbull-eaps, and shave their heads for a
width of five inches from the brow to the nape of the
neck, leaving long side-locks. The girdle supplies the '
place of pockets, and in it are deposited knives, the pipe,
the tobacco-pouch, the flint and steel, and various etceteras.

Every man carries a long smooth-bore gun slung
from his left shoulder, or a stout shillelagh, or a stick
split and loaded at one end (the split being secured with
strong leather), or all these weapons of offence and defence
at once.

These very wide shulwars, much like the " divided
garment/' are not convenient in rough walking, and on
the march a piece of the hem on the outer side is tucked
into the girdle, producing at once the neat effect of
knickerbockers.

The men are very well made. I have never seen
deformity or lameness except from bullet wounds. They
are not usually above the middle height, though that is
exceeded by the men of the Zalaki tribe. They are
darker than the Persians. As a general rule they have
straight noses, with very fully expanded nostrils, good