d all over the gardens are the various
other buildings for secretaries, attaches, and interpreters. All the
structures are of European architecture--simple, but solid. In summer,
however, all the Legations shift their quarters to what is called in
Teheran "_la campagne de_ Golahek, de Tejerish, de Zargandeh,"--by which
gracefully misleading and misapplied terms are indicated the suburban
residences of the Legations, at the foot of the arid, barren, hot, dusty
Shamran range of mountains.

Golahek, where the British Legation is to be found, does actually boast
of a few green trees in the Legation grounds; and a cluster or two of
nominally "green" vegetation--really whitish brown--can be seen at
Zargandeh, where the Russian and Belgian Legations are side by side, and
Tejerish, where the Persian Foreign Office and many Persian officials
have their summer residences.

The drive from Teheran to Golahek--seven miles--is dusty beyond words.
There are wretched-looking trees here and there along the road, so dried
and white with dust as to excite compassion. Half-way to Golahek the
monotony of the journey is broken by a sudden halt at a khafe-khana, into
which the coachman rushes, leaving the horses to take care of themselves,
while he sips refreshing glasses of tea. When it suits his convenience he
returns to splash buckets of water between the horses' legs and under
their tails. This, he told me, in all seriousness, was to prevent
sunstroke (really, the Persian can be humorous without knowing it), and
was a preventive imported with civilised ways from Europe! The ears and
manes of the animals are then pulled violently, after which the horses
are considered able to proceed.

[Illustration: Persian Cossacks (Teheran) Drilled by Russian Officers.]

The Persian Government gives each Legation a guard of soldiers. The
British Legation is guarded by infantry soldiers--an untidy, ragged,
undisciplined lot, with cylindrical hats worn at all angles on the side
of the head, and with uniforms so dirty and torn that it is difficult to
discern what they should be like. Nearly all other Legations are provided
with soldiers of the (Persian) Cossack regiment, who are infinitely
better drilled and clothed than the infantry regiments. They are quite
military in appearance. It was believed that these Cossacks, being
drilled by Russian military instructors, would not be acceptable at the
British Legation, hence the guard of infantry soldiers.