Surrounded by fields of tobacco and maize, it is neatly laid out, and presents a cheerful appearance, the buildings being of white stone, instead of the everlasting baked mud and clay.

Many of the courtyards were surrounded by date palms, and the people seemed more civilized and prosperous-looking than those in the villages north of Shiraz.
"So you refused the escort over the Kotal ?" said J--that evening, as we sat over our coffee and cigars in his little stone courtyard, white and cool in the moonlight, adding, with a laugh, "Well, I don't blame you.

A good story was told me the other day in Shiraz _apropos_ of escorts.

It happened not long ago to an Englishman who was going to Bagdad from Kermanshah through a nasty bit of country.

A good many robberies with violence had occurred, and the Governor of Kermanshah insisted on providing him with an escort, at the same time arranging for a Turkish escort to meet him on the frontier and take him on to Bagdad." "You have seen the ordinary cavalry soldier of this country.