Art. XVI. LIST OF WORKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED

THE

ECLECTIC REVIEW,

FOR APRIL, 1823.

Art. I. Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Ancient Babylonia, &c. &c. during the Years 1817, 1818, 1819 and 1820. By Sir Robert Ker Porter. With numerous Engravings. In Two vols. 4to. Vol. II. pp. 870. Price 41. 14s. 6d. London. 1822.

THE

*

HE first volume of these Travels, containing our Author's journey through Persia proper, we reviewed on its first appearance above eighteen months ago, and we need not repeat the general remarks then made on the literary deficiencies which form a somewhat serious drawback on the value of the work. The Editors of the present volume frankly disclaim on behalf of the Author, all pretensions to a scientific acquaintance with either chemistry, botany, or geology, to which we will take the liberty of adding, classic literature and antiquities. Nevertheless, Sir Robert is a most entertaining companion, as well as an excellent draftsman; he writes likes an intelligent and amiable man; and he has contributed not a little to both our amusement and our information. We wish that we could evaporate part of the bulk of these ponderous tomes; but, as this is impossible, we have endeavoured to obtain their

extract.

A tour through Persia claims at least the merit of enterprise. It is a vastly different thing from a voyage up the Nile, or a tour through Palestine. The route by which our Author returned from Shiraz to Ispahan, has the name of the summer road, being impracticable in winter;' and the ascent and descent of its mountain-ladders, the shuddering horrors of its precipitous defiles, and the actual danger arising from the

* Eclectic Review for October 1821. VOL. XIX. N. S.

hordes who infest the passes, give an almost romantic character to the journey. To travel in Syria, a man should be a physician to travel in Persia, he ought to be a soldier. This vast and interesting tract of country, once the well-spring of the population of the world, now waste and lonely, is compared by Sir Robert to the dry bed of some once majestic river, where the depth and the space evince the mighty flood by which it might have been filled, and a few pools of stagnant water dotting the marshy surface, remain vestiges that such an element really did fill it.'

'No man,' he remarks, can enter Persia without remembering he is about to tread a land which a long line of native princes covered with cities, and towns, and fertility; a country which even its Grecian conquerors embellished with the noblest structures, and Roman invaders adorned with bridges, aqueducts, and castles. But of all these towns, villages, and structures, the erections of so many different ages and generations of men, few remain of any kind that are not sunk in ruin, or furrowed with decay. What were once cities, and hamlets, and cultivated fields, are now vast solitudes, without house, or hut, or tree, or blade of grass, for many, many miles. Indeed, so frequent are these monotonous tracts, dreary to the eye, and dismal to the heart, that the glimpse of a mouldering wall, round some long-abandoned village seen from afar; or a distant view of the broken massive arches of a lonely caravansary, surrendered to the wild animals of the waste; being memorials that human footsteps once were there, are sights of welcome to the cheerless traveller, waywearied by such unvaried scenes of desert solitariness. Besides such really melancholy sources of the ennui which so often accompanies the European through these burning tracts, is the unchanging serenity of the sky. Day after day, nay, month after month passes, and not a film is seen on its dazzling surface; not a cloud, even light as the thinnest vapour, varies the towering summits of the mountains by its fleecy shroud, nor tinges the vale beneath with its flitting shadow. In vain we look here for those sweet concealments of nature, which at times hide her beauties in a veil; or those sublime mysteries, which give infinitude to grandeur by the occasional darkness in which she envelops it. At no season of the year, in this southern part of Persia, can we see the storm gathering in the heavens, nor the thirsty earth opening its bosom to receive the milder shower, pouring abundance and beauty in its bland refreshment. In fact, I have not seen a single drop of rain since the morning of my quitting Teheran; and dew seems equally interdicted. I have often thought, while panting through this waveless sea of shadeless heat, that if those of my countrymen who indulge themselves in murmurs against our cloudy, humid climate, were only to be transplanted hither for one summer-journey, they might find a parallel example to the unhappy -lover of riches, who obtained the object of his passion to so grievous an extent, that, whatever he touched became gold; for, wherever

they go here, they would meet dryness, and cloudless, fervent sun. shine.' pp. 68, 9.

This passage is a fair specimen of the gorgeous, the almost Persian style of our Author's poetical prose. His descriptions are always highly picturesque, if his reflections are not very profound; but the mosaic work of figurative and matter of fact phraseology which his composition presents, is certainly not in the best taste. The transition is in some instances so unluckily managed, as to terminate in that inverted climax usually denominated bathos.

Iman Zada Ismael, a village lying at the threshold of the mountain region, derives its name and its reputed sanctity from containing the tomb of a Mahommedan saint. Every individual in the place, moreover, claims his descent from Mahommed; hence the inhabitants are all called Saieds, or sons of the Prophet. The aspect of the holy village struck the Travellers as wearing an air of comfort and civilization rarely to be met with on that side of Ispahan. They were surprised at finding the women of the place not only walking about in freedom, but completely unveiled, and mixing promiscuously in discourse or occupation with the male inhabitants: they are described as of dark complexions, but with regular features, and large fine eyes, well-shaped, and having a general appearance of cleanliness not very common among the lower classes in Persia. The village itself is well constructed and clean, and exhibits at every point, in its large tracts of garden ground, and the adjacent corn-lands and vineyards, the signs of unusual prosperity. For this, one little circumstance may partly account: the sacred village is exempted from tribute of any kind; and in addition to this and other distinguishing privileges, the prince-governor of Shiraz pays a yearly contribution towards the repair and decoration of the Iman's tomb. But the Frankish license here enjoyed by the female population, remains unexplained. From this place, a labyrinth of countless ravines and formidable gorges,' diverges in every direction, intersecting the vast mountain-chain extending from Ararat to the shores of the Persian Gulf. The numerous defiles running to the northwest, issue in valleys, which gradually expand into vast and fertile plains extending to the confines of Courdistan. In the most inaccessible parts of this stupendous range, live the Bactiari, Feilly, and Mamazany tribes, extending from the mountains above Kazaroon, to the vicinity of the Kou-i-zerd. In the summer months, the milder of these mountain wanderers descend from their heights, and, under the name of Eelauts, take up their residence for the season on