of tea. These being slightly embarrass- half of the little lake, and changes its posiing additions to our luggage we distrib- tion with the wind; when there is a strong uted them amongst the family of Sarmas breeze it comes near enough to the shore Beg, and were much struck by the grace- to allow of one's jumping on to it, and the ful way in which the Kourds received their shepherds are very fond of driving their gifts; they first kissed the presents, then flocks on here in the summer time, for the put them to their foreheads, and then grass is very sweet and there is no fear of bowed. With almost indecent precipitude straying. I got on without difficulty and they brought us return gifts of cream, found the island anything but pleasant to bread, and cakes, and on my wife saying walk upon, being very oozy and soft owing that the bread was the best we had eaten to the recent rains; as for the lake, it is on this journey, Sarmas Beg's son put reported, like many others, to be unfathhis hand to his heart and bowed like a omable. I had nothing with me, however, Parisian. to put this statement to the test. During our stay in its vicinity the island, much to our satisfaction, changed its position no less than four times.

matting, to allow of a current of air during | to a higher state of art than amongst the the summer heats; before the tents boil other tribes; stone is largely introduced cauldrons of milk-and there is always into the construction of the houses, red the tripod erected for making mast, by ornamentations made with henna adorn vigorously shaking a skin suspended from the doors and windows, and the constructhe centre -and the groups before the tion of the "compounds " is curious. You tents are highly picturesque: children enter by a low wicker gate, which is covalmost naked, women with baggy trousers, ered with cakes of dung, into a courtyard; only recognizable from men by their hav- a covered shed contains the tripod for ing no daggers in their waist belts. As mast, the blacksmith's bellows with double they travel these nomads present a most funnel ornamented at the top with carving, amusing aspect; on one cow is strapped and standing on feet made to represent its lately born calf, another cow carries birds with long beaks. Out of this shed two or three kids, and perhaps the mother you pass into the family rooms full of who has lately produced them; other cows great store cupboards for grain, elegantly carry the tents and poles, on the top of shaped waterpots made of a clay found which are perched the men; the donkey close to the village, in digging up which is laden with the household utensils, on the women are employed; any number of the top of which are tied the cocks and quaint-shaped copper utensils for boiling hens. The women of the tribe generally milk and cooking stand around, and amidst walk behind, whilst the young men go on a haze of smoke you perceive women sitsome distance ahead driving the flocks. ting on their haunches busily engaged in Thus they march day after day up from watching the pot boiling for the evening the sunny south by the Persian Gulf until meal. their summer quarters are reached, high up in the vast mountain range of Seehend. We much enjoyed our stay amongst the Kourds of Gouaragatch. This is a purely agricultural village belonging to the Jass, a tribe of wandering Kourds. women go about with uncovered faces; many of them are distinctly handsome, with dark raven locks dragged over their cheeks, bright red complexions, and large, almost Jewish noses; but unfortunately they love to tattoo these otherwise comely faces, and to wear silver solitaires in their Their heads are hung with all sorts of ornaments, cowrie beads and savage jewelry, and their headgear generally is weighty and uncomfortable-looking. Over their loose, baggy trousers they throw a red dress, and in the photographic groups we obtained we find our friends at home are generally at a loss to determine the sex unless some babe in arms or other evidence of maternity settles the question.

noses.

We witnessed the home-coming of the a truly bucolic flocks that evening sight; at the expected return of the shepherds, crowds of women and children assembled just outside the village, and when Their the herd drew nigh each rushed forward to seize her own property, wildly screamChildren of five or ing, and adding to the pandemonium of noises which arose. thereabouts were left in charge of two or three kids as large as themselves, to wait while their mother deposited the calf in her stable; thus the Kourd begins young to make himself useful. This scene lasted for nearly half an hour, and the women would assemble here again to deposit with the herds for the day their treasures in the shape of sheep and goats and calves.

Scenes much the same as these we witnessed at the next village of Sinjate, also inhabited by Kourds; this, however, was more favorably situated in a gorge and surrounded by jujube-trees; for we were beginning now to descend from the higher plateau in which we had been wandering. Around our compound in this village were many rooms inhabited by branches of the same family; we entered into one and found several women squatted around the heated oven, or tanure, which is just a large earthenware jar sunk in the floor and heated with brushwood, a flue being placed to connect it with the outer air.

The men have for their distinguishing feature the turban made of chequered silk, red, yellow, and blue, with gold and silver thread; this is bound round a red cap, and is infinitely more becoming than the sheep-skin bonnet of the Persian peasantry. A mounted Kourdish chief with his light blue jacket, long, flowing shirt cuffs, and magnificent things in the way Cowrie shells were even more fashionof daggers, keenly excited my wife's desire to photograph but before the cam-able here than they were in the former era could be set up he had fled, and we village. Their caps and aprons were one mass of them, and some even wore bracenever saw his like again. lets of these shells. It happened to be

Everything amongst the Kourds points

A few miles after leaving Sainkallà we bade farewell to the men Haidar Khan had sent to protect us, and entered the territories of another potentate - "a most important man," our khan continually impressed upon us; and, sure enough, as we turned a corner of the road we saw twenty drawn up, ten on either side of our path. I must own that when I first saw them 1 got a shock, thinking that we had fallen into the hands of thieves, but our khan instantly reassured us "they are the escort sent by Norooz Khan to conduct us safely through his territory."

the family baking that we interrupted, and | ing the rich plain to the south of Lake we, too, were invited to squat around the Urumia from the hostile attacks of the oven and watch the proceedings. This is Kourdish tribes. what we saw: One woman- - she of inferior skill-made dough into balls about the size of one's fist; these she beat with her hands into flat cakes about a quarter of an inch thick and ten inches across; respectfully, she handed this preparation to the chief bakeress, who presided over the oven, and who, by some mysterious legerdemain, by merely throwing the cake from hand to hand expanded it into a thin oval sheet the thickness of paper; this she deposited on a dirty pillow, one end of which was opened to let in her hand, and, poising it proudly in the air, she dashed it against the heated side of the oven and when baked to her satisfaction she removed it with two sticks. The women of Sinjate were very kind to us, taking us over their vast expanse of mud roofs, and showing us the interior of their homes; and as we passed by the women always greeted us by lifting up their hands.

We began to descend rapidly from Sinjate along the side of a considerable stream which rejoices in the quaint name of the Checkatoo, and which eventually becomes a large river before falling into the southern extremity of the Salt Lake of Urumia. A few hours' ride along its banks brought us to the town of Sainkallà which nestles beneath a mud fort built on an eminence. This place forms a sort of capital for the Afshah tribes who frequent the neighboring mountains. Here Haidar Khan holds his court during half the year, and much as we wished to see him, we could not regret his absence, for we were lodged in his house, which is the only respectable abode in the place; and so pleasant was it after our mountain experiences, with its shady garden and freedom from a staring crowd, that we elected to stay there two days to rest. Sainkalla boasts of a little bazaar where we were able to obtain many things much needed; but it is at best a desolate spot, having been entirely ruined during the invasion of the Kourds a few years ago under the much-dreaded Sheikh AlbiDowleh; during the invasion irreparable harm was done to the homes of the Afshahs, who retired to the mountains for safety, and on their return found their homes destroyed and their fields laid waste. From its position Sainkallà is important, commanding as it does the entrance into eastern Kourdistan by way of the sources of the Checkatoo, and protect

We were now in the hands of an interesting little tribe, and under the protection of an interesting man, Norooz Khan, chief of the Chehar-Dowleh tribe. I always think those hard Eastern names look better translated, so we will proceed to speak of Count Newyear, chief of the "four governments" tribe. He has quite a palace at his capital, Mahmoud Jute, about twelve miles from Sainkallà, and here he lives in almost regal state. Though small in number, the "four governments " tribe has a great reputation for bravery; originally they came from South Persia, and were placed in the neighborhood of the town of Kasvin by Fatt-i-Ali-Shah, the grandfather of the present sovereign. His son, when he came to the throne again, transplanted them to the banks of the Checkatoo, gave them tracts of fertile territory, and here they have flourished exceedingly.

Count Newyear and his tribe were the only people in this district who succeeded in keeping the invading Kourds at bay, consequently the castle and village of Mahmoud Jute is the only one we passed through which does not bear evidence of the ravages of war. Here he lives perpetually, and may be said to be almost an independent sovereign, for though he wears the uniform of a Persian general, and talks of his regiment in Mezanderan, he refuses to pay any taxes, will not go to Teheran when told to, and exercises regal authority over his small realm.

The count is a thick-set, stout man, with thick lips, and hair with a tendency to curl, pointing to the Arabian origin of his tribe, and suggesting that, at no very remote period, he numbered a negro amongst his ancestors. His reception of us was most gracious; officials lined our path, and at the entrance gate stood his Majesty, stick in hand, and apologized for

not coming to meet us lower down, stating | passed into a different sphere altogether; that an attack of gout had much curtailed occasionally we went by an underground his locomotive powers. From his recep- village which the nomads had now detion-room, fitted with long carpets and serted for the upper levels, and occasiondivans, we enjoyed an extensive view over ally, too, we sighted a train of wayfarers the valley of the Checkatoo, richly culti- bound for the mountains, but to all intents vated country, and the distant Kourdish and purposes we had left the nomads bemountains from which we had just come. hind us, and with them the delicious free Before giving us our repast, we were taken air of the Median mountains. At the next round his palace, which covers two acres village we actually saw a wheeled vehicle, or more with its buildings and gardens. that is to say, a cart consisting of a trianAround the whole runs a thick mud wall gular wooden plateau fifteen feet long, at with fourteen bastions, on the top of each the apex of which buffaloes were fastened, of which storks had built their nests, as and the whole supported by an axle joinalso they had done on every available ing two wheels without spokes - plain, point of vantage, so that the place seemed round pieces of wood. alive with these sacred birds - Hadgi laclacs, as the Persians call them, from their supposed migration to Mecca every winter and their presence is a sure sign of peace and prosperity. Around the fortress is the village, with many prosperous houses, a little bazaar, and those horrid underground houses which swarm so with vermin.

Count Newyear told us much about his tribe; he owns, he said, two thousand houses, and has about five thousand male dependents; his territory stretches from Sainkallà to the town of Mianduwab; his subjects are chiefly sedentary now, and are engaged in cultivating the fertile vale of the Checkatoo, though there are still among them certain families who adhere to the nomad life, dwelling in the village during the winter, and going up to the yaëla, or mountain pasturages, during the summer months. He told us, too, that there is a tradition in their tribe of having once conquered four other tribes, and hence they adopted the name of the "four governments.' Be this as it may, there is no doubt of the Arabian origin of this people, from their general cast of countenance and physique.

Our repast was excellent, surpassing in quality and quantity that provided for us by the Afshah chief. A table was brought in for our benefit, and we were allowed to use our own knives and spoons. Our Khan, however, and Newyear sat below us on the floor and made us marvel at the dexterity with which they introduced into their mouths such difficult material as poached eggs and rice, with the assistance only of their fingers. My wife paid a visit to the ladies, and was much struck with the elegant decorations of the harem rooms; and after a cordial farewell we set out on our way once more along the banks of the Checkatoo.

Henceforth all was cultivation

we had

Buffaloes here are in constant use; they revel in the muddy waters of the Checkatoo, and seem blissfully happy when their backs are scratched by the naked urchins, who attend them to their bath. With the advent of carts and buffaloes we felt that we had seen the last of our nomad friends, and the Mountains of Media were in the mist behind us.

J. THEODORE BENT.

From Belgravia.

THE STORY OF A FRENCH MAID OF
HONOR.

(MLLE. DE HAUTEFORT.)

BY MRS. E. M. DAVY.

ON a certain afternoon in the year 1629, the celebrated Princesse de Conti was walking along one of the most fashionable promenades of Paris, accompanied by a strikingly beautiful young girl. All the world asked the question, Who can this girl be? The same evening nothing was talked of but the charming child.

A few days later it was announced that Mlle. de Hautefort was appointed one of the maids of honor to Marie de Medici, the queen-mother.

This girl of fourteen, who caused so sudden and universal a sensation, was the youngest daughter of the Marquis de Hautefort. Born in 1616, in an ancient feudal castle of Périgord, and losing both parents in infancy, she was brought up by her grandmother, Mme. de Hauterive. But she wearied of the monotony of country life. She heard people talk of the court- that brilliant French court where she felt herself destined to play her part and daily prayed to God that she might there.

go

It was not long before her prayer appeared to be granted. Private affairs