visible germ bored its way into the
sole of my right foot and caused me a good deal of trouble for several
weeks after. Animal life in all its varieties was plentiful in all the
rooms.

Previous to starting on the long drive to the capital I had to get some
meat cooked for use on the road, but it was so putrid that even when I
flung it to a famished pariah dog he refused to eat it. And all this,
mind you, was inexcusable, because excellent meat, chickens, eggs,
vegetables, and fruit, can be purchased in Resht for a mere song, the
average price of a good chicken, for instance, being about 5_d._ to
10_d._, a whole sheep costing some eight or ten shillings. I think it is
only right that this man should be exposed, so as to put other travellers
on their guard, not so much for his overcharges, for when travelling one
does not mind over-paying if one is properly treated, but for his
impudence in furnishing provisions that even a dog would not eat. Had it
not been that I had other provisions with me I should have fared very
badly on the long drive to Teheran.

It may interest future travellers to know that the building where the
hotel was at the time of my visit, August, 1901, has now been taken over
for five years by the Russian Bank in order to open a branch of their
business in Resht, and that the hotel itself, I believe, has now shifted
to even less palatial quarters!

The Imperial Bank of Persia has for some years had a branch in Resht, and
until 1901 was the only banking establishment in the town.

CHAPTER V

Resht--Impostors--A visit to the Head Mullah--Quaint
notions--Arrangements for the drive to Teheran--The Russian
concession of the Teheran road--The stormy Caspian and unsafe
harbours--The great Menzil bridge--A detour in the road--Capital
employed in the construction of the road--Mistaken English
notions of Russia--Theory and practice--High tolls--Exorbitant
fares--A speculator's offer refused--Development of the road.

Resht is an odious place in every way. It is, as it were, the "Port Said"
of Persia, for here the scum of Armenia, of Southern Russia, and of
Turkestan, stagnates, unable to proceed on the long and expensive journey
to Teheran. One cannot go out for a walk without being accosted by any
number of impostors, often in European clothes, who cling like leeches
and proceed to try to interest you in more or less plausible swindles.
One meets a great many pe