camel, of which there are two distinct kinds. The low,
strong, rough-haired animal, with two humps, called bughur,
which was brought originally from Bactria ; and the taller,
lighter Arabian breed, called schutter, of which there are
three or four classes adapted to different purposes. There is
likewise a third, or mule breed, between the Arabian and
Bactrian, with a single hump, but much larger than that on
the back of the former ; it is called Ner, and is much prized
as a beast of burthen, especially by the Turkomans. Besides
the buffalo, and other domestic animals, there are large-tailed
sheep, the long-haired cat, and a particularly fine swift dog,
the Macedonian greyhound.
The subjects to be noticed in ornithology are two or three
sorts of eagles,1 the Ahubârah (a kind of bustard), Capk-e-
Derri (royal partridge), the black and desert partridge,2 pheasant,
jungle fowl (towards Affghânistân), several varieties of
the heron, the magpie, and myriads of a kind of quail,3 nearly
as large as a pigeon, the blackbird, thrush, and nightingale.
Fowls are abundant, but common geese and ducks very rare.
In ichthyology, the Persian Gulf, as well as the Black
and Caspian Seas, are more remarkable for the quantity
than the variety of specimens ; but. sturgeon and the sterlet,
a delicate kind of carp, abound in the Caspian Sea, where
they are taken chiefly for the caviar and isinglass. In
the rivers towards the southern extremities of the empire,
barbel and carp, especially the latter, attain a prodigious size.
Serpents abound, as in ancient times, in the plains of
Moghân, and elsewhere there are several kinds, which, in
gênerai, are harmless ; but the bite of the long bright-coloured
snake, so abundant in different parts of the Persian Gulf
(a little way from the shore), is said to be very dangerous.
Large-sized lizards are numerous, as well as tarantulas and
scorpions, both white and black. The latter, or that which
is found in Kâshân, and on the plains of Abü-Shéhr, is considered
dangerous.
The insect tribe appears to be more numerous and less
1 Elpbinstone’s Kdbul, p. 144.
2 Bogra Karà, black breast, about the size of a grouse. 8 Katta.
known than the other branches of natural history. We are
familiar, however, with the musquito and locust; myriads
of the former, of two sizes, infest the rivers as well as the
marshes; and the latter, which may be called the scourge of
Africa and Asia, come occasionally in such clouds as not only
to devastate the crops, but also to destroy everything like
vegetation throughout the line of their course.
L an gu ag e, R e l ig io n , e t c ., of I r a n .
In the gradual diffiision of mankind, the western provinces
of Iran appear to have fallen to the share of the Arameans
and Elamites, while the mass of the. Cosssei, Ariani, Mardi,
and other tribes, composing the earliest inhabitants, moved t
more eastward ; leaving some of their numbers in the mountainous
districts, to mix with or become subject to the new
comers. The Shemitic people and language having thus
become dominant, instead of the Cushite, the ethnography
of the former, rather than that of the latter, becomes an important
consideration. From this primitive language, or
rather from one of its cognates (as the Homyaritic may
possibly prove to have been), two distinct branches were
derived; the original Arabic, with the Musnad, Koreish, and
other dialects of that tongue, being one of these; and the
Aramaic the other. The latter had two grand subdivisions,
from one of which, known as the Western Aramaic, were
derived the Amharic,1 Syriac, Hebrew, &c.; and from the
other, or Eastern Aramaic, came the Assyrian, Babylonian,
and Chaldean tongues. From its monosyllabic construction,
the eastern seems to be more ancient than the western
Aramaic, and it appears likewise to be the root of the Zend,
Pehlevi, Sanscrit, and other dialects in use throughout a
portion of the territory, along which it had spread eastward.
Whether the first of these languages was once in general use,
or was merely the sacred language2 of iran, the affinity of all
of them is such as to imply a common origin. Pehlevi was
1 According to traditiop, recorded by Abd-el-Malik, the Amharic was the
language spoken in Mesopotamia soon after the, deluge.
2 Zend, character, A vesta, language.— SirY?. Jones’s works, Vol. III., p. 113.
G 2