of beef, mutton, and camels flesh, on a fudden, every room of the karavansera was tumultuously filled by a large body of pilgrims from the fhrine of Mufchid. What an exuberance of zeal must have animated thefe devotees! which neither fo diftant and perilous a journey could deter, or the inclement feafon of the year cool. The prefent winter was accounted more rigorous than had been for fome years remembered, particularly in the quarter of Mufchid and Nishabor, where two of these pilgrims had perished in the fnow, and others had loft their limbs by the feverity of the frost. IN that band, which rushed into our apartment, was a perfon who seemed to take the avowed lead; he was better equipped than his affociates, and wore on his head the infignia of a hadji;† a pilgrim, who supplied the place of a servant, began to reconnoitre the room, and as soon as he had noticed its situation, he diflodged without ceremony, and with much facility from one of its corners, the very portable chattels of our poor mollah; and in the voice of authority, declared the place affigned to the use of the hadji, whom he reprefented to be of fuperior rank and importance. THE hadji took his feat with a folemn air, and looking haughtily around, he threw his eye on me, and immediately asked, or rather demanded my name and bufinefs. The question was con * They were chiefly inhabitants of Tabriz, the ancient Taurus, I believe, a town in the province of Anderbeijan. In Perfia it is a ftrip of cloth commonly green, rolled on the edge of the cap. veyed in a manner which fully evinced the power of the interrogator; indeed I quickly faw, from the party's deference to him, the neceffity of obferving a respectful conduct to this fuperb Ma hometan. I told him that I was an Arab, travelling to Mufchid; but judge of my confufion, when the hadji began to speak in my fuppofed language. Endeavouring to fupprefs my embarraffment at fo complete a conviction of falfity, I obferved, that I had assumed the name of an Arab, for the purpose of traveling with more fafety; but that I was a native of Kashmire, proceeding on a mercantile concern to Mazanderan. Such stories, which in the east may be defcribed by the fmoother term, fimulation, are in common use among Afiatic travellers; and unless other teftimony corroborates their relations, little credit is given, nor is much expected. It is fufficient that their true story remains concealed. THIS emendation of my account, produced no apparent furprize, nor any further interrogation; and from the mode of the hadji's behaviour, it was evident that I had not suffered in his opinion. The last year of my life had been occupied in an invaried fcene of difguife, with a language wholly fabricated to preferve it; fo that, God forgive me, I never wanted a ready tale for current ufc. I have now only to hope, that when it may be nolonger expedient to fupport the part hitherto fo fuccessfully maintained, I shall be enabled to throw off the cloak with all its garniture for ever. The hadji was a refident of Balfrofh, the principal town town of Mazanderan, where he maintained a confiderable traffic; he had joined the Tabrez pilgrims at Mufchid, and was now on the way back to his own province. The occafion of accompanying this party was not to be foregone; as few roads are of more dangerous paffage, than that from Turfhish to the Cafpian fea, and confequently not much frequented. The hadji, to whom I applied for a paffage to Balfrofh, affected to lay various obstacles in my way, and seeing my anxiety to proceed, he made his bargain conformably, that is, he ftipulated for a double amount of the usual hire. THE territory of Turshish, which takes in about miles from east to weft, and nearly half that space in latitudinal direction, is held by Abedullah, an independant Perfian chief; he feems to be forty years of age, has a respectable appearance, and affumes that air of gravity which strongly pervades the manners of the higher claffes of Mahometans. His administration is well liked by the people, who seem to act and speak very much at their ease. Paffengers are never interrogated, nor is a paffport required. ADJOINING to old Turfhish, called alfo Sultanabad, which is of small compafs, and furrounded with a wall, Abedulla has built a new town, in an angle of which stands the karavanfera, the only one I have seen in Perfia, which is not interiorly fupplied with. The chief and his officers refide in the new quarter, where is alfo held the market, which the inhabitants fay, has not been water. fo fo well fupplied, fince the Afghan troops have laid waste the districts of Mufchid, and thereby impeded the traffic of this quarter of Khorafan. About THE trade of Turfhish, arifes chiefly from the import of indigo and other dyes from the westward, woollen cloths, and rice, which is fcantily produced in this vicinity, from Herat. And the chief article of export feems to be iron, wrought in thick plates. The small quantity of European cloths required at Turfhish, is brought from Mazanderan, by the way of Shahroot, or from Ghilan, by the way of the great road of Yezd. one hundred Hindoo families from Moultan and Jeffilmere, are established in this town, which is the extreme limit of their emigration on this fide of Perfia; they occupy a quarter in which no Mahometan is permitted to refide, and where they conducted bufinefs without moleftation or infult: and I was not a little furprized to fee thofe of the Bramin fect, distinguished by the appellation of Peerzadah, a title which the Mahometans usually bestow on the defcendants of their prophet. Small companies of Hindoos are alfo fettled at Mufchid, Yezd, Kachan, Cafbin, and fome parts of the Cafpian fhore; and more extensive focieties in the different towns of the Perfian Gulf, where they maintain a navigable commerce with the western coast of India. THE departure of our kafilah now drawing near, the hadji purchased a horse for my conveyance, with the money which I had advanced; but not thinking my weight and baggage a sufficient burthen burthen for the animal, by no means a robust one, he added two heavy parcels of dying stuffs, on which I was to be feated. This was the most rapacious Mahometan I had yet known; not fatisfied with the first extortion, he urged me without intermiffion, for a loan of money, even the moft trifling fum; in other words, he wanted to cheat me. There are, I believe, few fuch men amongst us as Hadji Mahomet. He had the reputation of being an opulent merchant, and he was connected with perfons of the first rank in his country; his deportment was grave and dignified; his manners in common intercourfe were fo forcibly infinuating, that he never failed to please, even those who knew and had experienced his ill qualities; he had, on the oftensible score of devotion, made pilgrimages in Arabia, Turkey, and Perfia; he prayed with undeviating regularity five times in the day, befides a long roll of fupererogatory orifons. Yet this man of property and rank, of polite manners, and profeffed fanctity, having in vain aimed at a larger fum, importuned me in abject language to lend or give him half a crown. But my feelings having become callous, from a long association, I suppose, with those who had none, I was enabled to withstand, with intrepid coolness, the intreaties of the hadji, who seemed to take the refufal nothing amifs; indeed I imagine, he accounted me a perfon of difcretion, and converfant in the business of the world. THAT I might the better guard against a suspicion of the character I represented, especially in the mind of the hadji, who to |