part, but off they ran, and off ran I too, determined for the future to "open wide the portals of prudence, and to close the avenues of indiscretion."

Although I like this independent mode of sleeping wherever momentary convenience may dictate, still it has sometimes its inconveniences, which I have experienced. I was one night awoke by the pattering of some drops on my coverlet, which was any thing but water-proof; a smart shower (a most unusual thing in Persia) was disturbing all the inhabitants of Tehran. Up they sprang with bolsters and carpets in hasty confusion, and I heard a Babel of sounds relative to their new arrangements, but was too much occupied with my own to attend to my neighbours. I made hasty retreat within the threshold, where I made out the night, the servant laying at my feet.

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CHAPTER XIII.

NIGHT TRAVEL IN PERSIA.

THERE is something very romantic in stealing through a wild country as it were by night. Having made five stations from Tehran, as far as Kirishkeen, it was deemed more prudent to obscure than to expose ourselves in this immediate neighbourhood. The road had been previously marked with rocky passes and tortuous ravines, which nature seems to have planted in Persia, as strongholds either of offence or defence between savage man. A road of this kind is therefore always deemed dangerous; and the prudent traveller, with his well-armed attendants, makes his cautious survey, that the pistols and

guns are in perfect readiness, in case of any sudden. hostility.

It is amusing sometimes to witness the mutual caution of two parties coming towards each other, both on the defensive; the glittering of the firearms in the distance bespeaks a foe, although a friend; and warily approaching each other, instead of powder and shot they exchange the courteous "Salome," and "Alikom Salome."

Every one must go armed in this country. I was much amused in this wild district by our gholaum crying out that there were horsemen in the distance; immediately the priming and loading went on, and each person looked to his weapon of defence. On galloping towards our expected foes, they turned out to be a party of poor peasants on ass-back, who having been plundered the night before, at their village, were seeking either their cattle or the delinquents.

Some of these districts are occupied by the Eleauts, the nomades, or wandering tribes, living in their black tents, which are pitched according to pasture abundance. From these we kept aloof, fearing plague, dogs, and robbers. one of their villages I had considerable difficulty

At

in gaining admittance. They had had sufficient taste of Russian invasion to loathe every one from that country, (indeed, I found this to be generally the case in Persia). They called me “Ruski,” "Moscovite," "Pedersukteh," "Burn your fathers," and I know not what. The dogs were set at me, and I was not allowed to cross their threshold for some time. But an all-powerful argument in the shape of money prevailed-and what will not this do in Persia?

I found at the next station, Koramdereh, every thing to compensate for the incivilities of the last, -all Persian smiles and courtesies,-with their "Kush gelden,”—welcome-and “Bismillah,” in proof of which they lay a lamb at your feet, and with a knife at its throat, its blood will be upon you, unless you avert the sacrifice.

But I must dwell a moment at this place, it being a large village, called the "happy valley." Richly wooded and watered, and embowered in its own groves, it had a very pretty effect from the neighbouring hills. It was on a Sunday morning, about ten o'clock, that I found my way into this village, heartily tired after a nine hours' march over a dry and thirsty soil, where there was little

or no water, and no other herbage than that "with which a mower filleth not his hand, nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom." Here I luxuriated in the little "bauleh kaneh," with an abundance which was a mockery to all appetite, of the finest fruits, &c. to my heart's content; my only fear was repletion.

The occasion of our night's travel was this: in the immediate neighbourhood, not long before, the Elchee's servants, who were conveying the envoy's baggage to Tehran, had been surprised in their camp by a party of marauders, who had carried off even their tents. Sir John Campbell immediately sent up a gholaum to Zenjan, to the Khan of that city, in whose district it occurred, to require instant redress for the insult offered to the British mission, and payment for the baggage stolen, stating the amount. These amounts are generally exaggerated by the servants, who are sometimes interested in the robbery, by giving information to the robbers. The Khan, in great alarm of being displaced from his government, pays the money; and then levys upon his subjects perhaps twice as much as he had to pay; and they levy upon whom