Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 299
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[Page 299]
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stables in rear of the field workshop and were well cared for by two native grooms ("syces"). Though they were stallions they were docile enough: the Mahomedan religion discourages the castration of animals, and among strict believers there are no geldings, bullocks or wethers.
Persia at this time was still a very inaccessible, primitive and backward country, in which most people travelled on donkeys or just walked from one village to the next, and I found it easy to imagine myself in Palestine in the time of Christ. It had no railways, hardly any modern roads, and except in Tehran, no proper hotels. To tour it before the Great War one would have had to organise a small mule or pony caravan and stay at night in one of the numerous high-walled caravanserais on the outskirts of the towns; these corresponded to the present-day motel. Packed or tinned foodstuffs were quite unknown. Bread was black whole-grain with some of the grit from the millstones in it, and went sour after one day. There was never any fat on the meat as it was more valuable than the flesh, for making candle dips. Beet sugar was the only variety and came in solid cones a foot high. Jam, usually plum, was packed in small goat skins and was very tart. Mast (Yoghurt) was staple diet, supplied in crude earthenwaare bowls. Tea was scarce, poor quality and expensive; coffee was unknown in the North. Bacon and pork were, of course, prohibited in this strictly Mahomedan and Jewish land: the faithful were forbidden to even touch either. Grapes, apricots, peaches and apples were plentiful and ridiculously cheap; tomatoes, cucumbers and other vegetables, too. The Koran also forbids the consuming of alcoholic liquors, and they were not freely available. Wine seemed to be unobtainable but there was a black market in Arack [also spelt Arak], a potent white date-spirit, and Russian beer at the equivalent of about ten shillings for a small bottle. Nearly all cooked food in Persia was curried with unadulterated powder, ground from roots grown locally: curry actually came to India from Persia.
The Shah of Persia was an absolute Ruler with undisputed powers of life and death over all his subjects, and administered