There is, or was in Pottinger’s time, still a great manufacture of matchlocks at Kerman; but rose-water, shawls, and carpets are the staples of the place now.  Polo says nothing that points to shawl-making, but it would seem from Edrisi that some such manufacture already existed in the adjoining district of Bamm.  It is possible that the “hangings” spoken of by Polo may refer to the carpets.  I have seen a genuine Kerman carpet in the house of my friend, Sir Bartle Frere.  It is of very short pile, very even and dense; the design, a combination of vases, birds, and floral tracery, closely resembling the illuminated frontispiece of some Persian MSS.

The shawls are inferior to those of Kashmir in exquisite softness, but scarcely in delicacy of texture and beauty of design.  In 1850, their highest quality did not exceed 30 tomans (14_l._) in price.  About 2200 looms were employed on the fabric.  A good deal of Kerman wool called Kurk, goes via Bandar Abbasi and Karachi to Amritsar, where it is mixed with the genuine Tibetan wool in the shawl manufacture.  Several of the articles named in the text, including pardahs ("cortines”) are woven in shawl-fabric.  I scarcely think, however, that Marco would have confounded woven shawl with needle embroidery.  And Mr. Khanikoff states that the silk embroidery, of which Marco speaks, is still performed with great skill and beauty at Kerman.  Our cut illustrates the textures figured with animals, already noticed at p. 66.

The Guebers were numerous here at the end of last century, but they are rapidly disappearing now.  The Musulman of Kerman is, according to Khanikoff, an epicurean gentleman, and even in regard to wine, which is strong and plentiful, his divines are liberal.  “In other parts of Persia you find the scribblings on the walls of Serais to consist of philosophical axioms, texts from the Koran, or abuse of local authorities.  From Kerman to Yezd you find only rhymes in praise of fair ladies or good wine.”

(Pottinger’s Travels; Khanik.  Mem. 186 seqq., and Notice, p. 21; Major Smith’s Report; Abbott’s MS. Report in F. O.; Notes by Major O. St. John, R.E.)

NOTE 5.—­Parez is famous for its falcons still, and so are the districts of Aktur and Sirjan.  Both Mr. Abbott and Major Smith were entertained with hawking by Persian hosts in this neighbourhood.  The late Sir O. St. John identifies the bird described as the Shahin (Falco Peregrinator), one variety of which, the Farsi, is abundant in the higher mountains of S. Persia.  It is now little used in that region, the Terlan or goshawk being most valued, but a few are caught and sent for sale to the Arabs of Oman. (J.  R. G. S. XXV. 50, 63, and Major St. John’s Notes.)