The English factory, which had long been at Gombroon, had been removed
some years before to Abusheher. All the old servants had accompanied
it, and one, of the name of Suffer, had recently died, of whom I was
delighted to hear, from the best authority, an anecdote, which did
credit to the kindness of our countrymen, while it showed that even in
this soil, good usage will generate strong and lasting attachment. When
poor Suffer, who had been fifty years a servant in the factory, was on
his death-bed, the English doctor ordered him a glass of wine. He at
first refused it, saying, "I cannot take it; it is forbidden in the
Koran." But after a few moments he begged the doctor to give it him,
saying, as he raised himself in his bed, "Give me the wine; for it is
written in the same volume, that all you unbelievers will be excluded
from Paradise; and the experience of fifty years teaches me to prefer
your society in the other world, to any place unto which I can be
advanced with my own countrymen." He died a few hours after this sally,
which I was glad to observe proved of value to his son, a rough-looking
lad named Derveish, who was introduced by the Resident to the Envoy, at
the time the former told the story of the father's attachment. Derveish
was taken into service, and I have watched his gradual advancement till
he has become the proprietor of a large boat, which is the ne plus
ultra of the ambition of an Abusheheree.
The natives of this place are almost all of Arab race, and fond of
the sea; a propensity the more remarkable, as it is in such strong
contrast with the disposition of the Persians, of whom all classes have
an unconquerable antipathy to that element. But this is not the only
characteristic distinction between these classes of men, who appear to
agree in nothing but in dwelling in the same town. The Persians, who
have been tempted by the hope of gain to exchange the fine climate of
the elevated plains of the interior, for the sea-ports on the edge of
the sultry desert, which forms the shores of the gulf, retain all the
smooth pliant manners of their country; and they look with disgust on
what they deem the rude barbarous habits of the Arabians, who are the
great body of the inhabitants of this track, and who can scarcely be
distinguished, either in look or sentiment, from their kindred on the
opposite shore.
A remarkable instance of the difference of character, between the lower
orders of these two classes, occurred one morning, when the Envoy was
preparing a match, to be run by a beautiful English greyhound called
Venus, and a strong Arabian dog named Kessâb, or the Butcher. He was
giving directions to his master of the chase, Hyder, and expressing his
sanguine hopes of Venus's success: Mahomed Beg, a tall well-dressed
Persian groom, assented to all his anticipations, saying, "What
pretensions can that Arab dog have to run with the beautiful greyhound
of the Elchee?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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