us of October, 1879, by General Houtum-Schindler,
[40] the Zoroastrian population comprised 8,499 individuals, of
whom 4,367 are men and 4,132 women, they being distributed in the
following manner: In Yezd, 1,242; in the surrounding districts, 5,241;
in Kirman, 1,498; in the surrounding districts, 258; at Bahramabad, 58;
at Teheran, 150; at Kaschan, 15; at Shiraz, 25; at Bushire, 12. The
latest census (1892) shows a sensible increase of the population,
rising to 9,269 individuals.

Yezd and Kirman are the two most important towns, the former being
about two hundred miles south-east of Ispahan, the latter about
three hundred and eighty miles from the sea, in the port of Bunder
Abbas. They are both situated on the confines of two extensive deserts,
the Dasht-i-Kavir and the Dash-i-Lut, which, to the north, cover an
area of over five hundred miles, and which are separated by a chain
of rocky mountains through which the caravans trace their way with
difficulty. This region is feared by travellers, and is hardly known
to Europeans. [41]

Yezd [42] communicates with the rest of Iran only by the caravan
roads. On leaving the argillaceous plateaus, the rocks and the
sandhills, the town and the villages around seem to emerge from a
veritable oasis of mulberry trees; the desert begins at the very
foot of the walls, where the sand driven by the tempests is heaped
up. A line of ruins surrounds it and testifies to its ancient
extent. Yezd is, however, prosperous. It contains a population of
from seventy to eighty thousand inhabitants, composed of the most
diverse elements--amongst others 2,000 Jews, still obliged to wear
on their cloaks the badge of their disgrace, and some Hindoos called
to this place by their business affairs.

There are five reservoirs, abambars, fifty mosques, eight madressas,
and sixty-five public baths; a post office ensures a regular weekly
service with Bander-Abbas and Bushire; the telegraph puts it in
communication with Kirman and Ispahan. Commerce flourishes; about
the middle of this century eighteen hundred manufactories gave work
to nine thousand workmen. Nowadays the number is, however, less.

It is here that we find, grouped together, the scattered remnants of
the Zoroastrian community. The Guebres gave themselves up chiefly
to gardening and the cultivation of mulberry trees, notably of the
species of brown fibre, the wearing of which was formerly incumbent
on them. But a great change has taken pl