The Poor Man's Paradise.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 880, 11 January 1889, Page 5

The Poor Man's Paradise.

When we enter Portia we are in tho poor man’s paradise—a country where existence is possible upon 4d a day, where meat costs Id a pound and bread a quarter as much in ordinary times ; where a fowl may be purchased for 6d, a partridge or wild duck for 2d ; where a serviceable pony can be had for a £5 note and a valuable thoroughbred for £2O ; where a servant can be hired for 8s a mouth and his ratious, and you can feed a horse on 3d a day. Iu most of the cities a large house can be rented for from £lO to £3O a year, and all the necessaries of life are to be had at the very cheapest rate. The very mules upon which we are to march to the Capital, each of which will carry a load of 270 pounds, are hired at the rate of 9d a day , and yet from this small sum the muleteer, if he be fortunate, will obtain a good profit. The beasts are fat, there is plentiful herbage for the last five stages, and a handful of barley and eight pounds of cut straw is all that the mules will get during the other six days’ journey, and each day the mules will march their twenty to twenty-five miles, and go merrily along under their 300-pound load, for the great pack-saddle cannot weigh less than twenty to thirty pounds, while the load itself is seldom less than 280, and they will steadily maintain their pace at an average of four miles an hour save in the case of mountain passes, storms, swamps, and the numerous contretemps incidental to Eastern travel. The pack-sad-dle is a very important part of the mule’s equipment. Save when he is curry-combed the pack-saddle never leaves him by day or night. It supports the load and acts as his clothing, for however severe the weather may be, the hardy Persian mule gets no other. Of course the pack saddle is of the most solid construction; its high peak towers at least eighteen inches above the withers of the animal, and the padding is nowhere less than six inches thick.

This padding is composed of cut straw, and the muleteer is accustomed, by means of a packing needle thrust through the lining of the pad, to shift this stuffing in such a way as to remove the pressure from any part of the animal’s back which may become tender. Of course a mule with a bad sore baok is useless and has to be turned out to graßS ; and, strange to say, though there are many millions of mules and ponies used »b beasts of burden in Persia—rfor, be it remembered, there are no railways, no rivers, no canals, and only one road, that from Eirvin to the Capital ([except a few that have been'tnade for the Shah’s personal convenience), still a male with a sore back is a very unusual sight. This says a great deal for the care, intelligence and skill of the Persian muleteer.—Good Words.