Friday March 24 [24 March 1911] Exquisite morning. I got out to the
ruins about 6.30. The snows too beautiful. Worked till 2 at the small
palace, Fattuh sending me out lunch. Lots of Kurds came out to see
me and be photographed. Then moved over to the big palace where
Daoud Khan's son came to see me. Worked till 5 while the Kurds
amused themselves with rifle practice. One bullet whizzed over my
head. Came in and washed and rode down to the Villani's. He has a
nice pretty wife. He says Kerim Khan is an awful ruffian and
desperately stupid and savage. Muleteers are constantly dÈvalisÈs
and always heavily taxed by the Kurds. The road had become so
unsafe that the new Prime Minister (Nazir i Dauleh?) had called
Daoud Khan seriously to book, saying that if he did not mend maters
[sic] he wd be robbed of all his offices and honours. He is I think Gov.
of Kermanshah [Bakhtaran]. He has come here to interview Kerim
Khan and is here now. Therefore there is a momentary security. The
Govt. has no proper soldiers here, only what corresponds to zaptiehs
- naziriyeh. They had a cholera scare last year when the pilgrims
passed. If anyone dies on the road, he is just left dead by the
roadside for the crows to eat. Villani last year had to send one of his
......... to make a dervish whose business it is to bury the dead come
and bury a man lying by the road. He has been here 2 years. It is a
fearfully isolated post. Altogether I think the desert is a joke to Persia.