style="font-size:15px;"> Kanaat, an underground water-channel.
Kanat, the upright side of a tent.
Karsi, a wooden frame for covering a fire-hole.
Katirgi (Turkish), a muleteer.
Ketchuda, a headman of a village.
Khan, lord or prince; a designation as common as esquire.
Khan (Turkish), an inn.
Khanjar, a curved dagger.
Khanji (Turkish), the keeper of a khan.
Khanum, a lady of rank.
Khurjins, saddle bags.
Kizik, a slab of animal fuel.
Kotal, lit. a ladder, a pass.
Kourbana (Syriac), the Holy Communion.
Kran, eightpence.
Kuh, mountain.
Lira (Turkish), about £1.
Malek (Syriac, lit. king), a chief or headman.
Mamachi, midwife.
Mangel, a brazier.
Mast, curdled milk.
Medresseh, a college.
Mirza, a scribe, secretary, or gentleman. An educated man.
Modakel, illicit percentage.
Mollah, a religious teacher.
Munshi, a clerk, a teacher of languages.
Namad, felt.
Nasr, steward.
Odah (Turkish), a room occupied by human beings and animals.
Piastre, a Turkish coin worth two-pence-halfpenny.
Pirahan, a chemise or shirt.
Pish-kash, a nominal present.
Qasha (Syriac), a priest.
Rayahs, subject Syrians.
Roghan, clarified butter.
Samovar, a Russian tea-urn.
Sartip, a general.
Seraidar, the keeper of a caravanserai.
Sharbat, a fruit syrup.
Shroff, a money-changer.
Shuldari (Shooldarry), a small tent with two poles and a ridge pole, but without kanats.
Shulwars, wide trousers.
Sowar, a horseman, a horse soldier.
Takchāh, a recess in a wall.
Taktrawan, a mule litter.
Tandūr, an oven in a floor.
Tang, a rift or defile.
Tufangchi, a foot soldier, an armed footman.
Tuman, seven shillings and sixpence.
Vakil, an authorised representative.
Vakil-u-Dowleh, agent of Government.
Yabu, a pony or inferior horse.
Yailaks, summer quarters.
Yekdan, a mule or camel trunk, made of leather.
Yohoort (Turkish), curdled milk.
Zaptieh (Turkish), a gendarme.
LETTER I
A shamal or N.W. wind following on the sirocco which had accompanied us up "the Gulf" was lashing the shallow waters of the roadstead into reddish yeast as we let go the anchor opposite the sea front of Bushire, the most important seaport in Persia. The Persian man-of-war Persepolis, officered by Germans, H.M. ship Sphinx, two big steamers owned in London, a British-built three-masted clipper, owned and navigated by Arabs, and a few Arab native vessels tugged at their anchors between two and three miles from the shore. Native buggalows clustered and bumped round the trading vessels, hanging on with difficulty, or thumped and smashed through the short waves, close on the wind, easily handled and sailing magnificently, while the Residency steam-launch, puffing and toiling, was scarcely holding her own against a heavy head sea.
Bushire, though it has a number of two-storied houses and a population of 15,000, has a most insignificant appearance, and lies so low that from the Assyria's deck it gave the impression of being below the sea-level. The shamal was raising a sand storm in the desert beyond; the sand was drifting over it in yellow clouds, the mountains which at a greater or less distance give a wild sublimity to the eastern shores of the Gulf were blotted out, and a blurred and windy shore harmonised with a blurred and windy sea.
The steam-launch, which after several baffled attempts succeeded in reaching the steamer's side, brought letters of welcome from Colonel Ross, who for eighteen years has filled the office of British Resident in the Persian Gulf with so much ability, judgment, and tact as to have earned the respect and cordial esteem of Persians, Arabs, the mixed races, and Europeans alike. Of his kindness and hospitality there is no occasion to write, for every stranger who visits the Gulf has large experience of both.
The little launch, though going shorewards with the wind, was tossed about like a cork, shipping deluges of spray, and it was so cold and generally tumultuous, that it was a relief to exchange the shallow, wind-lashed waters of the roadstead for the shelter of a projecting sea-wall below the governor's house. A curricle, with two fiery little Arab horses, took us over the low windy stretch of road which lies behind Bushire, through a part of the town and round again to the sea-shore, on which long yellow surges were breaking thunderously in drifts of creamy foam. The Residency, a large Persian house, with that sort of semi-fortified look which the larger Eastern houses are apt to have, is built round courtyards, and has a fine entrance, which was lined with well-set-up men of a Bombay marine battalion. As is usual in Persia and Turkey, the reception rooms, living rooms, and guest rooms are upstairs, opening on balconies, the lower part being occupied by the servants and as domestic offices. Good fires were a welcome adjunct to the genial hospitality of Colonel Ross and his family, for the mercury, which for the previous week had ranged from 84° to 93°, since the sunrise of that day had dropped to 45°, and the cold, damp wind suggested an English February. Even the Residency, thick as its walls are, was invaded by sea sand, and penetrated by the howlings and shriekings of the shamal and the low hiss at intervals of wind-blown spray.
