vegetables of all sorts.

[Illustration: H. E. Ala-el-Mulk, Governor of Kerman, in his Palace.]

No Europeans live within the wall of Kerman city itself, and at the time
of my visit there were only four Europeans altogether residing in the
neighbourhood of the town. Two missionaries, husband and wife; a
gentleman who, misled by representations, had been induced to come from
India to dig artesian wells at great expense--in a country where the
natives are masters at finding water and making aqueducts--and our most
excellent Consul, Major Phillott, one of the most practical and sensible
men that ever lived.

The Consulate was at Zeris or Zirisf, some little distance to the east of
the town. We passed through a graveyard on leaving the inhabited
district, and had in front of us some ancient fortifications on the rocky
hills to the south, which we skirted, and then came to some huge
conical ice-houses--very old, but still in excellent preservation. We
passed the solidly-built and foreign-looking gateway of the Bagh-i-Zeris,
and a little further at the end of a short avenue the British flag could
be seen flying upon a gate.

As I came upon him a ragged infantry soldier, who, being at his dinner,
was busy licking his fingers, sprang to his feet and made a military
salute. Having passed through a court and a garden and a series of
dismantled rooms I found myself in the Consulate, where I was greeted
effusively by Major Phillott, who had no idea I was coming, and who,
owing to my being very much sun-tanned, had at first mistaken me for a
Persian! He would not hear of my remaining at the Chappar khana, and most
kindly sent at once for all my luggage to be brought up to the Consulate.
The hospitality of Englishmen in Persia is really unbounded.

H. E. Ala-el-Mulk, Governor of Kerman, called on the Consul that same
afternoon, and I was able to present the letter I had brought to him.
Having lived long in Europe Ala-el-Mulk is a most fluent French scholar,
and, being a man of considerable talent, sense, and honesty he is rather
adverse to the empty show and pomp which is ever deemed the necessary
accompaniment of high-placed officials in Persia. He can be seen walking
through the town with only a servant or two, or riding about inspecting
every nook of his city hardly attended at all. This, curiously enough,
has not shocked the natives as people feared, but, on the contrary, has
inspired them with intense respect for the new Go