Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) [Illustration: YEZDI TYPES. The numbers are from the left. 1. A _qan’at_ maker. This is the man who digs the tunnels by which the water is brought from the base of the hills to the towns in the plain. The leather bag on his arm is a bucket. 2. A Parsi _raiyat_, or agriculturist, with his spade. 3. A porter. 4. A _charvadar_ (muleteer) from Lāristān. These very big men often come to Yezd with caravans. 5. A Jew, who is divining from his book for the charvadar. The Jew has his boy with him. 6. An oil-seller. He carries the oil in gourds. 7. A _darvish_, or religious mendicant. 8. An Arab. These are sometimes seen in Yezd, but like the Lari _charvadar_ they do not really belong to the town.] FIVE YEARS IN A PERSIAN TOWN BY NAPIER MALCOLM NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY 1905 _Printed in Great Britain._ PREFACE I feel that this short sketch of a Persian town needs an apology. It will not improbably be mistaken for a book of travel. Stopping five years in one place is not travelling, and the experience of such a stay is not a traveller’s experience. The descriptions that will be found in this volume refer to a very small area, and consequently a good deal of minute work has been attempted that would have been out of place in the painting of a larger sphere. Then, again, this is not a book upon mission work. There is comparatively little about the very interesting work which is being carried on in Yezd by the Church Missionary Society, but there is a great deal about the circumstances under which missionaries work, for the book is really a description of a Persian town from the missionary point of view. This will explain why certain details, such as the dress and food of the people, are left out altogether; for, although there may be some connection between these things and the kind of way in which missionary work ought to be conducted, it is not at present apparent to the writer. On the other hand, the general effects of house, street, and desert, which meet the Yezdi’s eye at every turn, have been rather elaborately described, for scenery and scenic surroundings have much effect on character, and the study of character is essential in missionary work.