Persia Revisited | Page 4

twenty thousand Persians, from the provinces of
Azerbaijan and Hamadan, working last summer on the new railway
from Tiflis to Alexandropol and Kars, now being built, and doubtless
many of them will permanently settle on the line.
It is said that there are half a million thus located and working out of
Persia, but I think that this is an exaggerated estimate. Most of them
retain their nationality, for while they grumble loudly in their own
country, yet when away they swear by it, and save money steadily to
enable them to return home. Their nomadic character is the cause of
this readiness to seek employment abroad. I was told that in 1894-95
twenty thousand Persian passports were issued from the Embassy in
Constantinople. This would include pilgrims as well as home visitors. It
is this love of country (not in the sense, however, of patriotism as
understood in the West) which makes a Persian cling to his national
representative abroad, and willingly pay for frequent registration as a
subject who is entitled to protection and permission to return home
whenever he may choose. As a rule, the Persian abroad always appears
in the distinctive national dress--the tall black lambskin cap and the
coat with ample skirt of many pleats.
I have mentioned the Persian porters who are seen at Baku; they are
also to be found at Petrovsk and Astrachan, and are generally preferred
to the local labourers, who, in common with their class in Russia, take a
long drink once a week, often unfitting them for their work the
following day. The Persians are of sober habits, and can be relied upon
for regular attendance at the wharfs and loading-stages. They have
learnt, however, to take an occasional taste of the rakivodka spirit, and
when reminded that they are Mohammedans, say that the indulgence
was prohibited when no one worked hard. These porters are men of
powerful physique, and display very great strength in bearing separate
burdens; but they cannot work together and make a joint effort to raise

heavy loads, beyond the power of one man. Singly, they are able to lift
and carry eighteen poods, Russian weight, equal to six hundred and
forty-eight pounds English.
In the newspaper correspondence on the burning Armenian Question, I
have seen allusion made to the poor physique of the Armenian people;
but as far as my observation goes in Persia, Russian Armenia, and the
Caucasus, there is no marked difference between them and the local
races, and on the railway between Baku and Tiflis Armenian porters of
powerful form are common, where contract labour rates attract men
stronger than their fellows.
Though much of the wealth which has come out of the Baku oil-fields
has been carried away by foreign capitalists, yet much remains with the
inhabitants, and the investment of this has promoted trade in the
Caspian provinces, and multiplied the shipping. There are now between
one hundred and eighty and two hundred steamers on the Caspian,
besides a large number of sailing craft of considerable size, in which
German and Swedish, as well as Armenian and Tartar-Persian, capital
is employed. The Volga Steam Navigation Company is divided into
two companies--one for the river, and the other for the Caspian. The
latter owns six large steamers, with cargo capacity of from sixty to
eighty thousand poods, liquid measurement, for oil-tank purposes,
equalling nine hundred to twelve hundred tons. They have German
under-officers, and Russian captains. It is likely that the German
officers come from the German colonies on the Volga, and probably
some of the capital also comes from that quarter. This Volga Steam
Navigation Company was established over fifty years ago by a
Scotchman, named Anderson, and some of the vessels first built are
still used on the river as cargo-boats.
Many of the best steamers on the Caspian are officered by Swedes and
Finns, most of whom speak English, acquired whilst serving in English
ships sailing to all parts of the globe. The Mercury Company, which
runs the superior steamers and carries the mails on the Caspian, has
Swedish and Finn officers, but it is said that they are now to be
replaced by Russian naval officers as vacancies occur. This company's

vessels are well appointed, have good cabins, and are fitted with the
electric light. But the best of Caspian mail-boats are most
uncomfortable in rough weather for all but those whom no motion
whatever can affect. Owing to the shoal water on all the coast
circumference of this sea, the big boats are necessarily keelless, and
may be described as but great barges with engines, and when at anchor
in a rolling sea their movement is terribly disturbing.
We embarked in the Admiral Korneiloff, one of the Mercury
Company's best boats, on the night of September 17,