SKETCHES IN PERSIA.-CAPTAIN H. C. MARSH.

1. AT Baku* the whole country is saturated with petroleum. On making a hole in the ground, a gas escapes, on lighting which it burns for a very long while. When there is no wind the flame is dull and small, but in a gale it roars and leaps up eight to ten feet. The old Hindoo1 mud-built, temple and cloisters, for the devotees who used to flock here as a place of pilgrimage, is a courtyard surrounded by small rooms. In the centre is a large Muth (shrine), with a bell suspended in it, and from the floor rises the mouth of a small tube of iron, from which, if a light is applied, gas flames up, and can be extinguished only by covering up the tube. This used to be a place of importance, but now its reputed sanctity has come to a low ebb. We only found one Brahmin2 here worshipping the sacred flames. He looked very much like one of our old Sepoys, but he stoutly denied it.

2. There are also two naphtha1-refining establishments, the furnaces of which are entirely heated by the natural gas, which is collected, as it rises out of the ground, in iron tanks, and laid on by pipes. At night the whole place is lighted in the same manner, by ordinary gasburners attached to the walls. On returning home in the

* Baku is a town, formerly Persian, but now, under Russia. It is near the Caspian Sea, and contains about 5,000 inhabitants.

evening we saw the silent waste lit up by various fires, each surrounded by a group of wild Tartars cooking their food by its heat. The naphtha springs or wells are about five miles off, and the oil is brought in casks in the crude state as it is pumped out of the wells—a thick, black fluid. The engine that, works the Government machinery uses this naphtha, instead of coal, for fuel. The oil is brought out of a tank by pipes, and is blown into the grate by the force of steam, the heat and flame being regulated with the same ease as a gas-lamp. Steam can be got up in the large furnace in a quarter of an hour, and the fuel is cheap, besides having the advantage of being clean and easy to manage.

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3. In the evening, our friend the aide-de-camp asked us to dinner, after which he took us for a row in a manof-war's boat to see the Naphtha Bay. It was a fine, calm night, and after a half-hour's row we entered a small bay, the surface of which was covered with a film of oil, which smelt strongly of naphtha; but we were disappointed in not getting it to light, a slight breeze having risen while reaching the place.

Once there I

4. From Baku I went to Khorassan. began to get my native dress ready, and called in some friends to give advice as to the proper cut of shalwars, or baggy trousers, large enough to have taken in a baby on each side; also as to the style and pattern of the embroidery of my sirdaree, or greatcoat, double-breasted, with a high collar; and of my waistcoat, cap and turban, sword-belt, and shumsher, or sword, of true Persian shape. When these things were ready, on the fourth day, I went out swaggering as grandly as the best of them. I also bought a fine Turkomanee horse,' with gaudy trappings ; and two ponies, with their palans, or pack saddles: so that on the fifth day I was ready to start. I went for

several rides, when trying horses, not only along the Kheeaba, but outside the walls and neighbouring villages. Zowars, or pilgrims, from all parts of Persia come here in numbers-about 20,000 to 30,000 yearly-and many bring the bones of their dead relatives to be buried here. One meets many green-and-white turbaned Moollahs" in the streets; all on the look out for their prey -the poor pilgrims to whom they teach, for a consideration, the proper ceremonies of their pilgrimage. The

city is full of graveyards, which are crammed with graves, but within the last few years orders have been given not to bury any more inside the walls. So great, however, is the desire of all that die here to be buried within the Holy City, that they often bury the dead in it by stealth. Cholera and dysentery are common enough, with a change to small-pox when the city gets too full. But no one thinks of death, though they live, always, in the midst of it.

5. In the afternoon of the third day I went, by appointment, to visit the Prince at his residence in the Ark, or citadel, the approach to which does not give one any idea of its strength, nor, indeed, has it any in reality. The place is spacious enough. We were led through many passages and courts, and came at last to one of large size, with high walls, and a garden in the centre, with large water-tanks full of fish. At the end, we were led up some steps to an oblong room looking out into the garden. It was nicely carpeted, and had two iron camp chairs for its only furniture. After a moment's delay the Governor came in with a few of his attendants and his Nazir—a small man, rather fair, dressed in European-cut trousers and frogged military frock-coat; over which, it being cold, he had on a furlined robe of brown cloth. I had on my undress uniform, and was not required to take my boots off. I took off my cap on his entering, but he begged me to put it on, as I might catch cold! After asking about my journey, of which he seemed to know all particulars, and as to how I dared to venture alone through the dangerous districts, he wished to know if I had been in the Abyssinian campaign, saying they thought it wonderful we had left the country after conquering it. Then he asked after the Governor-General1o and Commander-inChief, Lord Napier of Magdala," and gave me advice about the route to Herat, saying he was going to give me an escort of forty horsemen, with an introductory letter to Yakoob Khan,12 for which I thanked him. He then got up and led me into the garden, and showed me some specimens of marble he had had dug out of the hills to the west of the city, and also some rather well-made tables, of the same material, which he was going to send as presents to Teheran.13

6. On leaving him I went to see the guns, which were parked in the square in front. They were old ones of all sorts-six-pounder, nine-pounder, and twelve-pounder -Russian, French, and English, with rotten carriages that would not have stood any very hard work. He has about thirty guns of all sorts, some only two and threepounders. The soldiers were a slovenly lot, worse than at Teheran, with badly-kept arms.

These

7. While on the way home I saw a dreadful sight. On a dead wall, at the end of a lane, were three men crucified; they had large wooden tent-pegs driven through the hands and feet, and one through the back, with their faces to the wall. They were three Turkomans whom the Governor had lately caught red-handed in a raid on some village in the neighbourhood. wretches are the terror of the country, and richly deserved death, but not such a dreadful one; for, to prolong the torture, the peg through the back was left in: had it been extracted, they would have died at once. Some, caught before, had been flayed alive, and left to die by inches. They told me that eighty chiefs of the Turkomans had been invited to a conference at Meshed,14 and had been treacherously seized. So much for the civilization of Persia! This was by the order of one of the most accomplished men of the country.

8. Passing up the Kheeaba homewards, we had to pass by the tomb of Imam Raza; and though escorted by the Prince's servants, I was advised not to go in, though I longed to go close and inspect its beautifully decorated front of glazed tiles, and to ascend its gilt minarets.

9. The square in which all the holy buildings are situated is called the Sahn. The Kheeaba runs in a straight line, from gate to gate, right through the city,