about us when we halt. In doing this he
sometimes flogs about him pretty lively with the whip. As a general thing
the natives take this sort of thing in the greatest good humor; in fact,
rather enjoy it than otherwise.

At Miandasht, however, Abdul's whip happens to fall rather heavily upon
the shoulders of the telegraph-jee's farrash, who is in the crowd. This
individual, reflecting something of his master's self-esteem, takes
exceptions to this, and complains, with the customary Persian
elaboration, no doubt, to the consequential head of the place. The
consequence is that a gang of villagers, headed by the telegraph-jee
himself, gather around, and suddenly attack poor Abdul with clubs. Except
for the prompt assistance of R------and myself, he would
have been mauled pretty severely. As it is, he gets bruised up rather
badly; though he inflicts almost as much damage as he receives, with a
hatchet hastily grabbed from the fourgon. The fact of his being a Turk,
whom the Persians consider far less holy than themselves, Abdul explains,
accounts for the attack on him as much as anything else.

A new surprise awaits us at Mijamid, something that we are totally
unprepared for. As we reach the chapar-khana there, a voice from the roof
greets us with "Sprechen sie Deutsch." Looking up in astonishment, we
behold Colonel G------, a German officer in the Shah's army, whom both of
us are familiarly acquainted with by sight, from seeing him so often at
the morning reviews in the military maiden at Teheran. But this is not
all, for with him are his wife and daughter. This is the first time
European ladies have traversed the Meshed-Teheran road, Teheran being the
farthest point eastward in Persia that lady travellers have heretofore
penetrated to. Colonel G has been appointed to the staff of the new
Governor-General of Khorassan, and is on his way to Meshed. The
appearance of Ferenghi ladies in the Holy City will be an innovation that
will fairly eclipse the introduction of the bicycle. All Meshed will be
wild with curiosity, and the poor ladies will never be able to venture
into the streets without disguise.

There is furor enough over them in Mijamid; the whole population is
assembled en masse before the chapar-khana. The combination of the
bicycle, three Ferenghis, and, above all, two Ferenghi ladies, is an
event that will form a red-letter mark in the history of Mijamid for
generations of unborn Persian ryots to talk about and wo