1 /
2 ?r
3 also on the day.on which the Shia? expos: the
4 liibut (eolhn) in profession. In Cashmere, on those occasions,
5 the Maboinedans burn each others’ houses and shawl mannfuc-
6 toricK. From Xermonsha we went to Hugdad, witli a cnr;iv;m
7 carrying several embalmed dead bodies of Persians to Ker Ini.*,
8 their sanctuary.
9 I'.isia is a Ingli plain, diversified by ranges of hills and
10 deserts. It was in the month of August that we were on our
11 journey, ami the air was so bitterly cold on the morning of our
12 setting out, that our very teeth chattered ; I recollected that at
13 home they call these the dog-days. We arrived at Hugdad,
14 nlicr.- M. De Turk left me, a? lie was resolved to return to Paris
15 by land riel iocat and Constantinople, in order to take with him
16 some Arabian horses; a speculation, by tin way, which proved
17 by no means lucrative. A short time after his leaving me, 1
18 received some good news from Lahore, through a Persian who
19 had been in the , . vice of General Avitabile, which imiu ed me
20 again to atten.pt going there at the commencement of the favour¬
21 able season, L e. the early part of the winter (1829). I felt the
22 more iuclined to do so, as tile plague was already raging at
23 Mosul, and the inhabitants of Bagdad were fearful that it might
24 extend as far as their own city, a thing which occurred soon
25 after. In the year 181>S, there had been at Mosul and its
26 environs, a famine, in. consequence of the crops failing, and
27 numerous families went down the Tigris to settle at Hagd <,i.
28 selling their children for a mere trifle, owing to the want of
29 means to support them. I myself saw a beautiful Christian girl
30 purchased lor twenty grush (four shillings). Scarcely had I It ft
31 Hugdad when the plague broke out, ami this scourge was
32 followed by an inundation. A war, previously noticed, also
33 broke out, (luring which Dohud Pasha wad conducted as u
34 prisoner to Constantinople.
35 My only companion was u faithful servant, called Antun, a
36 Christian, whom I brought with me from Bagdad, and with
37 whom, after having passed through Hassorn, and .Muscat, I ai rived
38 at lleiider-Kiiratshi in Sind. From Karatshi, we pursuvd our
39 sects in Indi