doctor advised us to be very careful. Cleanliness was one of the surest safeguards against the disease.
I warned my men to wash themselves daily, and had scarcely finished my speech before a general bathing followed. Abbas Kuli Bek was first seen standing in the brook stark naked, giving himself douche after douche with a pail. Then Mirza came up in very light costume, and in a few minutes the whole party was splashing in the water. Meshedi Abbas alone, who had his own hygienic principles, considered the new regulations extravagant, and contented himself with watching the others bathe. Then it was the turn of the clothes, which were washed, beaten, and wrung on the bank, and in the evening my men decorated the tent-ropes with them.
At dusk I betook myself to the tent of Abbas Ali Khan, where the officials of Bendan were already assembled. There was the telegraph master, Mirza Ali Khan ; the Governor's Kafile - bashi, or caravan inspector ; Agha Muhamed, the chief inspector of the quarantine house ; and an Armenian, who was on his way to the customs-house in Seistan. The dinner consisted of excellent Persian pillau, eggs, and bread, nor did I miss my usual fowl.
The Hindu doctor said that Seistan is naturally a rich, fruitful, and well-watered country ; but the people are poor and down-trodden, for they are squeezed by the Governor of Meshed. In Persia the office of governor is farmed out to the highest bidder. The Governor of Meshed pays the Government 150,000 tuman a year for his post, and to make up this sum, and as much more for himself, his Excellency squeezes his province most disgracefully. Such a governor naturally promotes the spread of pestilence. The poverty he causes among the people renders them more liable to disease. He would be hanged in the name of humanity if there were any justice in this iniquitous world. But he takes care of himself, and the Government must have its 150,000 tuman. The worst is that all the leading men in Persia deserve hanging, for as the country is now managed it must advance quickly towards complete dissolution and ruin.
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