plain and as clear as a golden thread, and the
best we can do in our present obscurity is to give a few of the leading
features.

The important and critical situation evident in Persia to-day owes its
beginning to the disturbances in 1909, when the Constitutional Party
came into power, forcibly, and with guns ready to train on Tehran, and
when, almost without an effort, they obtained their rights, and lost
them again with even less effort....

* * * * *

_29 February._--The last day of a long month. The snow falls without
ceasing, blotting out everything that there may be to be seen. To-day,
for the first time, I realised that there are hills near. Mr. Lightfoot
and I walked to the old stone lion which marks the gateway of
Ekmadan--_i.e._, ancient Hamadan. I think the snow was rather thicker
than usual to-day. Mr. Lightfoot and I went to Hamadan, plodding our way
through little tramped-down paths, with snow three feet deep on either
side. By way of being cheerful we went to see two tombs. One was an old,
old place, where slept "the first great physician" who ever lived. In it
a dervish kept watch in the bitter cold, and some slabs of dung kept a
smouldering fire not burning but smoking. These dervishes have been
carrying messages for Germans. Mysterious, like all religious men, they
travel through the country and distribute their whispers and messages.
The other tomb is called Queen Esther's, though why they should bury her
at Ekmadan when she lived down at Shushan I don't know.

We went to see Miss Montgomerie the other day. She is an American
missionary, who has lived at Hamadan for thirty-three years. She has
schools, etc., and she lives in the Armenian quarter, and devotes her
life to her neighbours. Her language is entirely Biblical, and it sounds
almost racy as she says it.

There is nothing to record. Yesterday I cleaned out my room for
something to do, and in the evening a smoky lamp laid it an inch thick
in blacks. The pass here is quite blocked, and no one can come or go.
The snow falls steadily in fine small flakes. My car has disappeared,
with the chauffeur, at Kasvin. I hear of it being sent to Enzeli; but
the whole thing is a mystery, and is making me very anxious. There are
no answers to any of my telegrams, and I am completely in the dark.

_3 March._--I think that to be on a frozen hill-top, with fever, some
boils, three dogs, and a blizzard, is about as near wearing