Page:The Six Voyages of John Baptista Tavernier.djvu/179
The temper of the Air in Persia varies according to the variety of situation. The Country of Edzerbaijan is very cold, but very healthy. The Air of Mazandran is very unwholsom; for being a low fenny Country, and full of Insects, when the Waters dry up in the Summer, the Insects also dye and infect the Air. Sometimes those bad Waters over-flow the Country; in so much that the Inhabitants receive a tincture in their Complexions from the colour of the Earth. The Province of Guilan is included in the Province of Mazandran and the Air is so unwholsom, that the People cry of him that is sent to command there; Has he robb'd, stol'n, or murther'd, that the King sends him to Guilan?
At Ispahan, which is almost in the middle of Persia, there are six months of hot, and six months of cold weather. The Snow falls three or four times in a season, and sometimes so very thick, that there is hardly any travelling upon the Road. About a League from the City, toward the Mountain, there stands a Stone about two or three Foot high, which when the Snow hap'ns to cover, prognosticates a plentiful Year and the first Country-man that carries the news thereof to the King, receives a hundred Tomans. As for Rain, there is very little falls there, unless it be in April, and then it sometimes rains very hard.
In the Southern Provinces, the heats are very excessive, and kill abundance of our Europeans, especially those that are giv'n to drink.
All Persia is water'd with little Rivers; but there is not one navigable River through the whole extent of it, unless it be Aras, or the Araxes of the Indians, which carries some few flat-bottom'd Boats. The other Rivers, instead of growing bigger, the farther they keep their course from the Springs, grow shallower for want of Water, by reason of the infinite number of Kreises or Channels, which they cut out of the Rivers to water the Lands, which would not bring forth so much as only Grass without the help of those Cuts; unless it be in the Province of Mazandran, which from September to March seems a kind of Terrestrial Paradise, through the pleasing variety of Herbs and Fruits. However, Persia in general being thus water'd, is a most fruitful Country: though it be true, that many of their Springs and Channels are lost and brok'n. And Mirza-Ibrahim Governour of the Province of Edzerbaijan told me one day, that in the very Territory of Tauris, there were above two hundred Springs utterly lost, either by accident or negligence.
As for their Gardens, they water them with Well-water, by the help of a Wheel and an Ox; but the running Water is much better, as not being so cold, and more fatning to the Earth. And therefore the Fruits that grow in the Mountains which are only water'd by the Rain or by the Dews, are much better tasted, and keep longer.
Persia is a mountainous Country, but for the most part the Mountains are very dry and barren. As for Woods, there are none in all the Country. Travellers are also forc'd to go a great way out of their Road to find a Spring; and sometimes they shall ride ten or twelve Leagues, before they meet with any Water but what they carry in their Bottels. There are some Mountains out of which they dig Salt, as Stones out of a Quarrey. There are also Plains where the Sand is nothing but Salt, though it be not so savoury as our Northern Salt.
Of late several Copper-Mines have been found out, of which the Natives make all sorts of Kitchen-Housholdstuff. Their Lead comes from Kerman; their Iron and Steel from Corasan and Kasbin, though not so good as that of Spain. Their Steel is very fine, with a smooth grain, and grows very hard in the Water, but it is as brittle as Glass. Neither will this sort of Steel agree with the Fire: so that if the Fire have not more than a double heat when the Steel is forg'd, it will look just like a piece of burnt Charcoal. The Steel which we call Damas-Steel comes from the Indies, and the Persians call it Gauherdar.
There are also some Mines of Gold and Silver in Persia, wherein it appears that they have anciently wrought. Sha-Abas also try'd again, but found his expence to be more than his profit: whence it is become a Proverb in Persia, Nokre Kerven dehkrarge nohhassel; The Silver-Mine of Kerven, where they spend ten to get nine, which is the reason that all the Gold and Silver of Persia comes out of Forein Countries.
CHAP.