troops from British Beluchistan, against
marauding Beluch tribes who had been very troublesome for some time, and
who, being so close to the frontier, were able to evade alike Persian,
Beluch, and British law, until a joint movement against them was made
from west and east. H. E. Ala-el-Mulk told me that he intended to command
the expedition himself.

Ala-el-Mulk, a man extraordinarily courteous and simple in manner, was
former Persian Ambassador in Constantinople. Through no fault of his own,
owing to certain customs prevalent at the Sultan's court, the Shah during
his visit to Constantinople was unreasonably displeased, and the
Ambassador was recalled. The Governorship of distant Kerman was given
him, but a man like Ala-el-Mulk, one of the ablest men in Persia, would
be more useful in a higher position nearer the capital, if not in the
capital itself. Kerman is a very out-of-the-way place, and of no very
great importance just yet, although, if Persia develops as she should, it
will not be many years from the present time before Kerman becomes a
place of great importance to England.

However, Ala-el-Mulk is, above all, a philosopher, and he certainly makes
the best of his opportunities. He has to contend with many difficulties,
intrigue, false dealing, and corruption being rampant even among some of
the higher officials in the town; but with his sound judgment and
patience he certainly manages to keep things going in a most satisfactory
manner.

Besides his official business, and with the aid of his nephew, he
superintends the manufacture, as we have already seen, of the best, the
most characteristically Persian carpets of the finest quality and dyes.
There are a great many looms in the buildings adjacent to the Palace and
hundreds of hands employed in the Governor's factories. He also possesses
a good collection of very ancient carpets, from which the modern ones
are copied.

I returned his visit at his Palace, where the Consul and I were received
most cordially and had a lengthy and most interesting conversation with
his Excellency. Then he showed me all the buildings in the Ark.

Kerman is celebrated for its cloth manufacture and felts. The cloth is of
fine worsted, and is generally in pieces six yards long by three quarters
of a yard wide. It is much used by the natives, both for hangings and for
making clothes for men and women, being very soft and durable.
Embroidered turbans and kamarbands are made from the