Persia Revisited | Page 5

and arrived at
Enzelli on the morning of the 19th. I was amused on the voyage to hear
the sailors' version of the story how the Caspian became a Russian sea,
on which no armed Persian vessel can sail. The sovereignty of this
Persian sea was ceded to Russia by the Treaty of Gulistan in 1813, and
the sailors say that on the Shah being pressed over and over again to
consent, and desiring to find some good excuse to do so, a courtier,
seeing the royal inclination, remarked that Persia suffered sorely from
salt soil and water, which made land barren, and that sea-water was of
no use for irrigation, nor any other good purpose. The Shah on this
asked if it were really true that the water of the Caspian was salt, and
on being assured that it was, he said the Russians might have the whole
of it.
We found an improvement at Enzelli in the form of a hotel kept by a
Greek, with accommodation good enough to be very welcome. We had
excellent fresh salmon at breakfast, which reminded me of the doubt
that has often been expressed of the true salmon being found in an
inland sea. The Caspian fish is a genuine salmon of the same habits as
the marine species known in Europe, with the one sad exception that it
will not look at nor touch fly or bait in any form or shape, and therefore
gives no sport for the rod. The trout in the upper waters of the streams
that the salmon run up, take the fly freely and give good sport, but all
attempts by keen and clever fishermen to hook a salmon have failed.
The fish are largely netted, and same are sent to Tehran packed in ice,
while a good business is done in salting what cannot be sold fresh. The
existence of salmon in this inland salt sea, which lies eighty-four feet
below the level of the ocean, is supposed to be due to its connection

with the open sea having been cut off by a great upheaval in the
prehistoric time.
After breakfast we were confronted with a functionary new to us in
Persia, one charged with the demand for passports and their
examination. He is prepared to provide passports for those arriving
without them, and to _visé_ when this has not been previously done.
Considering the practice in force with Persia's near neighbour, and the
crowd of deck-passengers always coming and going, it was not likely
that this formality as a source of income would fail to be adopted. The
linguistic educational qualification for the post is evidently confined to
Russian, for on finding that I spoke Persian, the officer asked me for
the information he pretended to seek from the English passports. He
acknowledged the farce he was called upon to play, and we proceeded
without any farther inquiry. The day was warm, but not oppressively so;
the sea-breeze helped the boat across the lagoon and up the Pir-i-Bazaar
stream, and the weather being dry, we reached Resht in carriages By
the Mobarakabad route, without the splashing plunging through a sea
of mud which is the general disagreeable experience of the main road.
The Enzelli Lagoon is a swarming haunt of numerous kinds of
wild-fowl and fishing birds. Conspicuous among the waders in the
shallows and on the shore are the pelican and the stork. The place is a
paradise to them, teeming with fish and frog food. One of my
companions described what he had witnessed in a struggle with a
wounded stork in the shallow water of this lagoon. He and a friend
were out after wild-duck, and his friend, desiring to bag a giant stork,
which looked splendid in his strongly contrasted pure white and deep
black plumage, fired, and wounded the bird. His Persian servant, with
thoughts intent on cooking it, ran, knife in hand, to cut its throat in the
orthodox manner, so as to make it lawful for a Mohammedan to eat.
The bird, on being seized, struggled hard with its captor, and, snapping
its elongated bill widely in wild terror, by accident got the man's head
jammed between its mandibles. The keen cutting edges of the long
strong beak scarified the man's cheeks, and made him scream with pain
and with frantic fear that it was his throat which was being cut. His
master went to his assistance and released him by wrenching open the

stork's bill, but he was so occupied with supporting his swooning
servant that time was given for the wounded stork to hurry away in
safety, flapping its long wings and snapping its powerful beak, as is the
habit of this voiceless bird, with all the appearance of triumph.
Enzelli is becoming the port