they are less likely to breakage, but because they
may be re-sold by weight, without loss, when done
with), saddle-bags, saddles, bridles, and horse-
furniture for himself and his servants. He must
carry provisions, wine, and sometimes even forage
for his cattle. What with dragoman, cook,
muleteers, tent-pitchers, guards, grooms, and
hangers-on, lie will be lucky if he have less than
a dozen people about him. Most of these people
must be clothed for the journey, and must
receive at least a month's wages in advance.
Servants engaged in Turkey to travel to Persia
insist upon their return expenses being paid;
for no Turk could obtain employment, or live in
security in Persia, where he would be looked
upon as an unclean heretic. Then, when the
traveller has clothed these troublesome
servants, and advanced them wages, he will find
that they are most of them in some scrape.
One, owes money to a man who will not let
him go till he pays it; another, must leave
money for the support of a wife and family, who
appear to have come to him by enchantment;
for, when engaged, he declared himself to be
a bachelor; a third, has a brother in prison; a
fourth, is in prison himself; a fifth, has changed
his mind, and won't go at all, disappears with
clothes and wages at the eleventh hour, and a new
man, for whom fresh clothes and wages must be
found, is to be got to replace him; a sixth is ill,
and only to be cured by money; a seventh has
lamed himself and his horse, and must be left
behind, and is never more heard of; an eighth
refuses to sign the contract; a ninth signs it,
but afterwards comes to a wrangle about it, and
ends the dispute by hiding himself five minutes
before you start; a tenth declares that he can
only go one day's journey; the eleventh and
twelfth strike for double wages.

To be sure these wages are not very high, and
the clothes required by Eastern servants do not
cost much; but they cost something. Perhaps
the outfit and advance given to a servant will
average three pounds per head. His horse will
cost eight or ten pounds; a saddle, bridle, and
the rest of it, two pounds more; and this mounts
up to a round sum in the end. The number of
horses and baggage-mules will vary according to
circumstances. I had nine baggage-mules; a
gentleman with whom I travelled had forty.
About two shillings per day per mule is a fair
price for hire. We had the greatest difficulty in
procuring mules, however, and were detained
many days at Trebizond, Erzeroom, and Talreez,
in consequence. The extortions and cruelties
practised on the muleteers by the native
governments render them extremely unwilling to have
anything to do with persons likely to apply for
the aid of the authorities in any difficulty.
Within the last few years, in consequence of the
wars in Turkey and Persia, and the disturbed
state of the roads, the hire of mules is more
than doubled. They are miserable half-starved
animals, usually covered with galls and sores.
The roads over which they travel, being such as
nature made, they can seldom accomplish more
than fifteen or twenty miles daily.

Once on the road with bag and baggage, it is
almost impossible to calculate the expenses of
an European traveller. In the first place, his
servants are certain to lie and boast about him
for their own glorification. The authorities of
remote places are ignorant of any difference in
rank among Europeans, and generally suppose
a travelling Frank to be an ambassador. Thus
at nearly every village through which we passed
in Persia, a cow or a sheep was killed as a
sacrifice when we entered it. All the inhabitants
turned out to meet us, and frequently as many
as fifty horsemen escorted us for miles on either
side, discharging their fire-arms and exhibiting
feats of daring. The chief of these always
expected a present in accordance with his rank.
Some trinket would often satisfy the chief, but
bis troopers and inferiors had to be paid in
money. At night, wherever we encamped, the
chief inhabitants of the place sent us presents of
tea, sugar, fruit, honey, and sweetmeats. These
gifts were so numerous as to become a very
expensive mark of honour, for each gift was
brought to us by a different servant, and every
servant expected a present at least equal in
value to the gift he brought. It would have
been considered highly offensive to slight these
demonstrations of good will. Everything
supplied to a traveller is charged, therefore, not
in accordance with its value, but in accordance
with his supposed rank; and he is expected
to give liberal presents to all the ragamuffin
crowd, who collect wherever his tents are
pitched. The total absence of hotels, the
universal custom of giving money to the servants
of the host of the night whenever the traveller
halts in any considerable city; the almost
incredible number of servants kept by official
personages, and that class with whom a traveller
is brought in contact; the systematic
peculations of his own followers, who cannot be
checked nor controlled in their accounts by
reason of the total ignorance a traveller is
necessarily in, as to the prices of every
commodity in a place where he remains but a few
hours; the constant pilfering of idlers about the
tents; the troublesome and expensive practice
of giving presents and offerings to a traveller
twenty times a day, so that he cannot pass near
a corn-field or an orchard without being stopped
to give money for a few ears of wheat or an
apple; the privileged dervish who cannot be
refused, and who seizes the traveller's bridle-reins,
shouting, " Hoo! Hak!" with the contortions
of a madman till satisfied; the crowd of other
beggars, sacred and profane; the necessity of
buying a whole sheep for a single dinner; the
need of purchasing even water in many places;
the extortions of muleteers, who will stop in the
centre of a range of mountains and insist on
money before moving another step; the
exactions of leaders of guards, and cavasses, who
press for money with an importunity that no
coolness nor management can disconcert;-— all
these things may convey some idea of a few of
the items which swell the traveller's accounts.
Travelling may have been cheaper in past times.