Two wild-looking horsemen and a servant of the British Agent presented themselves, with a little bay pony of dolorous aspect in a halter for my riding. I, knowing that no horses were laid out, asked with scorn how the small pony could possibly carry me ninety miles in twenty-four hours, which I had stipulated for; but all three men assured me that I should certainly arrive, myself and saddle-bags, in the time on the little animal. I confess that I disbelieved them, but we started off at a smart canter, and we cantered for ten hours with short breaks of ambling. We got to a village two hours after midnight, slept for four hours, and arrived in Fussa at four, doing the journey under the time; the small bay seemingly not at all distressed, and prepared to go back to Shiraz at once at the same rate if desired. I was then surprised; I know that any one of my own well-fed big horses would have knocked up. But these little animals, used to the _severest continuous work_, do it in the most extraordinary manner. I am a big, heavy man; my saddle was a heavy English hussar saddle, and my bags and bedding certainly weighed forty pounds or more. Of course the beast I rode was a good one of his kind, and probably a very good one, for when I left, the Governor of Fussa declined to part with him even at a fancy price of three times his apparent value. We rode up to the door of the Governor, whom I found propped up with pillows in a corner of the room, a huge, fat man about thirty-eight, who was a general debauchee, opium-eater, wine and spirit drinker, and bhang smoker. He was suffering from gout. An aged Syud, with a long beard and blue turban, was in attendance from Shiraz as his physician. The Governor himself was a strikingly good-tempered, even jovial man, and between the paroxysms of his gout, joked and talked. The village, or rather district, magnates sat round him chiming in with all his observations, and trying to soothe his pains. They were, master and retainers, the fattest set of men I ever saw collected in one room. A long description of the patient’s ills ensued, many pipes of peculiar construction were smoked, and I was offered a _tumblerful_ of strong spirit as a matter of course, considerable surprise being expressed at my refusing it.