But Even This Plan
Sometimes Fails, And It Has To Be Chopped Out In Solid Blocks And
Melted For Drinking.
Kharzan has a population of about a thousand inhabitants.
It was here
that Baker Pasha was brought some years ago in a dying condition,
after being caught in a wind-storm on the Kharzan Pass, and lay for
three days in the house we were lodging at. Our old friend showed us a
clasp-knife presented him by the colonel, who on that occasion nearly
lost both his feet from frost-bite. Captains Gill and Clayton, [A] of
the Royal Engineers and Ninth Lancers, were with him, but escaped
unharmed.
Stiff and worn out with the events of the day, we soon stretched
ourselves in front of the blazing fire in anticipation of a good
night's rest; but sleep was not for us. In the next room were a party
of Persian merchants from Astrakhan on their way to Bagdad _via_
Teheran, who had been prisoners here for five days, and were now
carousing on the strength of getting away on the morrow. A woman was
with them - a brazen-faced, shrill-voiced Armenian, who made more noise
than all the rest put together. Singing, dancing, quarrelling, and
drinking went on without intermission till long past midnight, our
neighbours raising such a din that the good people of Kharzan, a
quarter of a mile away, must have turned uneasily in their slumbers,
and wondered whether an army of fiends had not broken loose.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 49 of 226
Words from 12663 to 12915
of 60127
