n occupies a position not to be
overlooked, guarding as it does the principal entrance from the south
into the Ghilan province.

CHAPTER VIII

Four thousand feet above sea-level--Castellated walls--An
obnoxious individual--Luggage weighing--The strange figure of an
African black--How he saved an Englishman's life--Teheran
hotels--Interesting guests--Life of bachelors in Teheran--The
Britisher in Persia--Home early--Social
sets--Etiquette--Missionaries--Foreign communities--The servant
question.

A few hours' rest to give one's aching bones a chance of returning into
their normal condition and position, and amidst the profound salaams of
the rest-house servants, we speed away towards Teheran, 130 versts more
according to the Russian road measurement (about 108 miles). We gallop on
the old, wide and flat road, on which the traffic alone diverts
one,--long strings of donkeys, of camels, every now and then a splendid
horse with a swaggering rider. We are travelling on the top of the
plateau, and are keeping at an altitude slightly above 4,000 feet.
Distant mountains lie to the north, otherwise there is absolutely nothing
to see, no vegetation worth mentioning, everything dry and barren.

Now and then, miles and miles apart, comes a quadrangular or rectangular,
castellated mud wall enclosing a cluster of fruit trees and vegetable
gardens; then miles and miles again of dreary, barren country.

Were it not for the impudence of the natives--increasing to a
maximum--there is nothing to warn the traveller that one is approaching
the capital of the Persian Empire, and one finds one's self at the gate
of the city without the usual excitement of perceiving from a distance a
high tower, or a dome or a steeple or a fortress, or a landmark of some
sort or other, to make one enjoy the approach of one's journey's end.

Abdulabad, 4,015 feet, Kishslak, 3,950 feet, Sankarabad, 4,210 feet,
Sulimaneh, 4,520 feet, are the principal places and main elevations on
the road, but from the last-named place the incline in the plateau tends
to descend very gently. Teheran is at an altitude of 3,865 feet.

Six farsakhs from Teheran, where we had to change horses, an individual
connected with the transport company made himself very obnoxious, and
insisted on accompanying the carriage to Teheran. He was picturesquely
attired in a brown long coat, and displayed a nickel-plated revolver,
with a leather be