served at once. A receipt is duly
given for the money paid, and we are off again. The coachman is the cause
of a good deal of anxiety, for on the chance of a handsome backshish he
has indulged in copious advance libations of rum or votka, or both, the
vapours of which are blown by the wind into my face each time that he
turns round and breathes or speaks. That this was a case of the horses
leading the coachman and not of a man driving the horses, I have
personally not the shade of a doubt, for the wretch, instead of minding
his horses, hung backwards, the whole way, from the high box, yelling, I
do not know what, at the top of his voice, and making significant
gestures that he was still thirsty. Coachmen of all countries invariably
are.

We ran full speed into caravans of donkeys, scattering them all over the
place; we caused flocks of frightened sheep to stampede in all
directions, and only strings of imperturbable camels succeeded in
arresting our reckless flight, for they simply would not move out of the
way. Every now and then I snatched a furtive glance at the scenery.

The moisture of the climate is so great and the heat so intense, that the
vegetation of the whole of Ghilan province is luxuriant,--but not
picturesque, mind you. There is such a superabundance of vegetation, the
plants so crammed together, one on the top of the other, as it were, all
untidy, fat with moisture, and of such deep, coarse, blackish-green tones
that they give the scenery a heavy leaden appearance instead of the
charming beauty of more delicate tints of less tropical vegetation.

We go through Deschambe Bazaar, a place noted for its fairs.

Here you have high hedges of reeds and hopelessly entangled shrubs; there
your eyes are rested on big stretches of agriculture,--Indian corn,
endless paddy fields of rice and cotton, long rows of mulberry trees to
feed silkworms upon their leaves. Silk is even to-day one of the chief
industries of Ghilan. Its excellent quality was at one time the pride of
the province. The export trade of dried cocoons has been particularly
flourishing of late, and although prices and the exchanges have
fluctuated, the average price obtained for them in Resht when fresh was
from 201/2 krans to 221/2 krans (the kran being equivalent to about
fivepence).

The cocoon trade had until recently been almost entirely in the hands of
Armenian, French and Italian buyers in Resht, but now many Persian
merchants have begun t