Page 59 - 1930 October - To Dragma

58 To DRAGMA

senger the "hanoum" (woman) who could drive so "kheli khub" (very
well)! At any rate, the chauffeurs were wonderful friends, and took won-
derful care of me. My food and my place to sleep and my comfort were
always their first care. I f I was lucky enough to find a room in a garage
or a teahouse when night came, they slept across the threshold of the
door (or even in the room with me!) to make sure that I would be
undisturbed. They looked after my meals even before they put their
cars away, often refusing to let me pay for them, or for little treats of
tea or fruit or wine. I f we had to spend the night on the road, the
entire load was rearranged so that I might have a comfortable bed; if
they had friends in a village where we stopped for the night, they would
offer to move out the entire family so that I might have a place in
which to sleep (though needless to say, knowing the interior of Persian
houses too well, I always found some reason for declining the proferred
hospitality and slept all night under the wonderful skies). I f I ever
so much as breathed that I would like to get to our destination quickly,
they would drive all night as well as all day to get there more promptly
(and driving through the Persian desert bv star—and moonlight was
exquisite—even in an overloaded lorry!). They taugh^ me Persian and
Turkish and Armenian and Arabic folk-songs, and took endless pains
to help me learn the local names of things in exchange for their English
equivalents. Few people have ever had better friends in a strange land
than I had among the lorry drivers in Persia. Their care of me never
left room for a moment's worry about brigands or the dangers of the road
even if, on one occasion, I rode in a car that had been robbed only the
week before of 7,000 tomans ( I toman = $1) worth of goods, and a
passenger had been killed in it by a stone that was directed at but missed
the chauffeur! You never knew, however, what the day might bring,
or where the night would find you. The car always stopped wherever
it happened to be when the chauffeur thought that he had gone far
enough. Sometimes it was at a largish village; more often, it was an iso-
lated desert settlement of a few houses. Beds as such didn't exist, even
if a room was available (the quality of the "room" can perhaps be
gauged by the fact that the average price for one was 20 cents!). You
simply spread your oilcloth on the floor, or on a wooden bench, laid
your blankets on that, and crawled gratefully in between them. Undress-
ing was such a public performance before such a frankly curious audience,
that it was usually simpler to crawl in, clothes and all.

When I left Teheran, I went to Isfahan, a fascinating city of mos-
ques and gardens, where much of the old culture and art of Persia is
preserved, and where I lived in the attractive house of some English
missionaries. ( I had a funny time in getting out of Teheran, incidentally,
besides waiting until 8 P.M. for a car that had been scheduled to leave
at 10 A.M. Just as the lorry was finally about to pull out of the garage,
it was found that I had neglected to get the necessary police permission
to leave the city. There was great excitement, and the first decision was
that I would have to stay in Teheran until the next day in order to get it.
The driver, however, offered to arrange matters. I didn't see how, but