298 Hamilton’s account of the east indies.
and probity, and had travelled that road feveral times, told them of the danger of fuf*locating heats that they mud pafs through the firft three dages of their journey; forthere are feme deep caverns in the fixles of fome mountains, commonly called by theinhabitants, hell’s mouths, which fometimes fend forth fuch hot dry winds, that killman and bead, if they do not fhun them, which is done by falling flat on the ground,and placing their cattle’s rumps to the wind, whild they lie on their bellies. Tholeblafts may be feen fome minutes before they come near enough to men or beads tohurt them, and in a minute or two, they blow over, being confined to a fmall fpace ofground to blow on. The general rule for travellers, is to fet out between three andfour in the morning, and travel to nine, which rule thofe French gentlemen obferved,and being.fatigued by their morning’s journey, as foon as they came to a caravanferay,(which are lodgings built at every ftage’s end, a ftage being about 15 miles), they weredifpofed to red, and ordered their fervants to make their beds ready, (for even thofeneceffary furniture, travellers are obliged to carry with them on carriage-beads), andordered their fervants to call them when dinner was ready, and withal ordered a Iheetfor each of them to be dipped in water, to lay over them, in order to cool them.One of thofe hot blads unfortunately came whild the gentlemen flept, and had leftthe windows of the room open, and the wind blowing in at the windows, fcorched themboth to death on their beds, where the fervants found them when dinner was ready,and pulling off the fheets, the Ikin and fome flefh came off with them.
I obferved before, that Ifpahan is didant from Gombroon about 700 miles, and yetI have known a foot-pod bring letters in 11 days from thence, though the ways are fobad, that horfes cannot travel it in that time.
Shyrafh is a large city on the road, about 550 miles from Gombroon , in a fine, plea-fant, fertile country, that produces fruits of all forts, excellent in their kinds, particu-larly apples, pears, plumbs, figs, walnuts, chefnuts, hazel-nuts, pidachio-nuts, andgrapes which afford good wines, and raifins, and is fo well dored with rofes, that theycan yearly export 2000 cheds of rofe-water, befides ten times as much fpent in Perfia,Arabia and Indudan. A ched contains about 12 Englilh gallons, carefully put up inthin flafks or bottles. The Mahometans are forbid to meddle with wine, therefore theArmenian chridians (who are very numerous in Perfia) have the privilege of makingwines, mod excellent in their kind; and it is a quedion whether the world affords bet-ter, for they are excellent domachics, and being drong, they’ll bear four times thequantity of water to mix with them, without being flat; and the mixture has a veryfine flavour. They make alfo brandy and vinegar, but though much dronger, not fopalatable as what France produces; fo that this country, which formerly was a king-dom of itfelf, not only produces what is convenient for itfelf, but exports large quan-tities of wines, brandy, vinegar, rofe-water, raifins and figs, with the aforementionednuts, which greatly increafe the wealth of the country, which alfo abounds in goodwheat, peafe and barley, for its own confumption; and their beef, mutton and fowl areexceeded by none in Europe .
About five leagues off the road of Ifpahan, are the ruins of the famous Perfepolis,that mad Alexander of Macedon burnt at the requed of a drumpet: and, as I havebeen informed by feveral that had the curiofity to fee thofe ruins, in their way to andfrom Ifpahan, it has been a large dately city. The fabric has been noble, by what may beyet feen-in fome parts yet danding, and fome paintings on done, that dill look ffelh>in fpite of time’s iron teeth, who defaces and dedroys mod fublunary things, or alterstheir figures fo much, that they can be known no other way than by tradition.
Chap. &