THE DESERTS OF PERSIA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 231, 4 February 1911, Page 10

THE DESERTS OF PERSIA.

SIB SVEN HEDIN'S OVKRLAXD JOURNEY TO INDIA. "I diligently avoid routes trod by the feet of others." That is the rule of the true explorer, and of all modern explorers, Sir Sven Hedin is perhaps the most thorough and the most modest. His new book, "Overland to India," is written more for the scientist than for the casual reader. It is a detailed rwwd of the journey from Batoum to, Ttfheran and from Teheran to the Indian frontier, packed with the result, olf tireless observation, and of the greatest value to the geographer. JJut there aye few purple patches and no thrills, - - - '•■■ ■

The borders of the Russian, Persian, and Turkish • Umpires form a sad country:

The classical Babylonia-Chaldca. Mesopotamia and Tralwab! of the 'present day—lies desolate, dusty, yellow, and scorohed burning sun between its rivers; and this land, now fallen for two thousand years, was formerly, according to cuneiform inscriptions, inierseeted by a network of irrigation canals which made it a mosaic of fields and garden.? where wheat yielded a hundredfold and juicy bunches of dates ripened among' the crowns of the palms. Stones dug out of the dry earth in whole libraries bv explorers of modern times still speak of peoples and dominions of'bygone centaries.

And in these regions railwav travelling is not too pleasant. The following is an incident at Ullu-Kanlu:— "

"We arrived at this den of thieves in the dark, and here there was no place where I could find shelter. The stationmaster, a Caucasian bandit, was willing and pleasant, and unlocked for me a second-class carriage where T could spend the night, but declared that lis could take no responsibility for my luggage, for there was no warehouse in the place, and here men stole and appropriated anything they could find."

The overland route followed by Sir Sven Hedin was ruined by the Sue;: Canal:—

"The English Consul, Mr. Stevens, who has lived in Tabriz since the vear 1875, informed me that thirty years ago, in his capacity as agent for tlie English commercial houses, he found customers for 800« bales of goods, as against 1000 at the present time. Then there were several firms, especially Greek and Armenian, which have now entirely disappeared, and it was the Suez Canal and the Transcaucasian Railway which stripped its old laurels from the old famous trade-route, Trebizond to Tabriz."

The following is a suggestive picture of domestic life on the border of the desert:—

"Tn the middle of the living-room, where the mistress was clearing up when T entered, stands a table a foot high, eovercd by a cloth which hangs low down on all hides. Beneath the table the ground is dug out, and in the hollow stands a mangal with burning fuel. The people take their seats round the table, draw the cloth over their knees, and tuck it in at the sides, and thus all the lower part of the b*dy is kept nice and warm while they sit and eat, occupy themselves with some handiwork, talk, or let their beards grow in idleness. And here is another gathered in a village still further east:—

_ Now and then I obtained a slight insight into their daily occupations." The women sit winding' ami twisting yarn over a charkh, or spinning-wheel; they bake bread on an upturned pitcher vessel with fire beneath it; they mend clothes, handle their babies, or play with their older children and search for vermin in one another's wigs—very trood sport, which does not involve the feast danger of exterminating the game. They must have a wearisome life, one day like another; but they know nothing better, have no wants, and see their sons grow up to be camel herdsmen and tillers of the ground, struggling for existence on the margin of the desert." Sir Sven Heden has much that is interesting to tell of the oasis nf Tebbes, a happy, sun-kissed region, still pure Asiatic:—

The market-place of Tcbbes ean pride itself on its Oriental character, where not a breath of European uncontaminated sanctity of an onsis which is far removed from the clutches of Christian strangers. Certainly Rnssian and English cloth, groceries, petroleum, and stearin candles are to be found in the bazaars; and in the houses of the towns* people even chairs, tables, and porcelain lamps, which hail from Western lands, lnit what is this compared with Teheran, where Creeks, Armenians, and other vagabonds do their dirty work, and the Oriental, careless and supine, sleep* and dreams under the influence of the foreign narcotic ?

Palm trees are everywhere:—

"The Persians say that palms are like human lieings—they languish and die from a gunshot, they are drowned if they are flooded with water, and they are frozen to death by cold. The male palm has several wives; like the \Tahometans; the female is noble, delicaVe, and dainty, and must be tended with the greatest care; she is like a domestic animal which renders the most inestimable service to man. ... An old Persian said that the palm differed from other trees in having life and soul and being able to think, mourn and rejoice. If she is treated with kindness, she feel* gratitude, and lets dates ripen in large clusters, under her crown of leaves; but if she is neglected, she becomes eurly, and omits to bear fruit."

Six Englishmen were Sir Sven Hedin's heralds of the approach of order. He is something of an Anglophile, and his description of these men pitched on the vpr F p ° f the beyond is very striking: "Six Englishmen, without ladies, were staying at Seistan. and with them 1 spent nine memorable days. Englishmen have a knack of making themselves at home in whatever part of the world their lot may ca.«(, them, and even here in this wretched Masrcctabad thev lived much as in London. They did not come unshared to luncheon in the great salon, and at dinner they appeared in spruce attire, with starched shirts, dinner .jackets, and patent-leather shoes. And then we sank into the soft armchairs and took coffee with prime cigars, and while the gramaphone reminded us of the divas and tenors of the great, world, whiskv and soda were served and we talked of Trail, Thibet, and the plague."