c peoples, who
have a small trade in horses, arms, opium, wool and dates; but the
cultivation of land is necessarily much neglected except for the supply
of local needs. In many parts it is almost impossible, as for five or six
winter months the soil is buried in snow, and the heat of the summer is
unbearable. There seem to be no intermediate seasons. The people live
mostly on the caravan traffic from Bagdad to various trading centres of
Persia, and they manufacture coarse cloths, rugs and earthenware of
comparatively little marketable value. Naphtha does exist, as well as
other bituminous springs, but it is doubtful whether the quantity is
sufficient and whether the naphtha wells are accessible enough to pay for
their exploitation.

That naphtha does exist, not only in Kurdistan, but in Pusht-i-kuh,
Luristan, and all along the zone extending south of the Caucasus, is
possible; but whether those who bore wells for oil in those regions will
make fortunes similar to those made in the extraordinarily rich and
exceptionally situated Baku region, is a different matter altogether,
which only the future can show.

[Illustration: Sahib Divan, who was at various periods Governor of Shiraz
and Khorassan.]

The tribes of Pusht-i-kuh are somewhat wild and unreliable. On the
mountain sides are capital pasturages. A certain amount of grain, tobacco
and fruit are grown, principally for local consumption.

In Luristan, too, we have partly a nomad pastoral population. Being a
mountainous region there are extremes of temperature. In the plains the
heat is terrific; but higher up the climate is temperate and conducive to
good pasturages and even forests. As in the Pusht-i-kuh mountain
district, here, too, wheat, rice and barley are grown successfully in
huge quantities, and the vine flourishes at certain altitudes as well as
fruit trees. The local commerce consists principally in live stock, the
horses being quite good, and there is a brisk trade in arms and
ammunition.

There remain now the large districts of Khuzistan, better known as
Arabistan, Farsistan and Laristan. The heat in these provinces is
terrible during the summer, and the latter district is further exposed to
the Scirocco winds of the Gulf, carrying with them suffocating sand
clouds. If properly developed, and if the barrage of the Karun river at
Ahwaz were put in thorough repair, the plains of Arabistan could be made
the richest in Persia. Wheat, rice and forage were