From "Blind White Fish in Persia" by Anthony Smith (Penguin
Travel Library, 1953, reprinted 1990). Smith led a team of British scientists
to Kerman in central Iran in 1950 in search of rare fish in the desert underground
water canals, or qanats. Pages 12-15:
When we first arrived in Kerman, it was unanimously agreed by the local
people that we were Russian spies. Our skin was not so dusky as theirs,
nor our hair so dark; therefore we came from the north and from Russia.
The second phase came when we were living in the villages. The pro-communist
faction in the town decided to write an article in their paper against us.
They decried our behavior and our way of life; they cited us as examples
resulting from the evils of a capitalistic community.
At this we were greatly displeased. The article had influenced quite a few
people against us, but these people all lived in the town, where the papers
were sold; out in the villages it did not matter; for not only are most
unable to read but these politics do not enter into their lives.
Those in the towns despise those outside them; they say that the villages
contain only illiterate, uneducated and worthless people. We preferred the
villagers, for they had humility.
When a villager asked if the hills near London were as high as the Kerman
peaks of 13,000 ft. none the less was thought of him. When a town-dweller
said English imperialism makes slaves of the English and then asked if the
desert around Oxford was the same as at Kerman his education was shown to
be unbalanced: a man who says that dates and camels flourish in England
can know little of her economy...
With the villagers we did not believe our failure was so complete; for they
are a people who live by the land and such people are less variable and
more dependable in their beliefs.
They have their sense of values and it is well ingrained within them; it
has been there for years and will be there for many more years to come;
they do not change so rapidly and any fluctuations will be well drawn out.
With them our lives had been, through them we had seen the country of Persia
and by them we had appreciated it.
In the town all is different; for there is the preliminary mixing of the
East and the West: through them we did not view the land and had no inclination
to do so; they did not, we felt, represent the country we had come to see,
and anyway our work was not with the towns but out in the parts where the
villagers lived. It was good that this was so.
The cry of the town people is that they are standing up for their rights.
Power in any form is respected. Assertion of personal rights means little
respect for the rights of others; motor car smashes frequently occur head-on
in the middle of the road, neither driver being prepared to give way. Weakness
and stupidity are believed to be as one; as one they are ridiculed. Weakness
is replaced by stubbornness; ignorance by aggressive assertion of what is
thought to be true.
Travelers say the kindness of the Persian prompts him to misdirect you;
a Persian, they say, is never uncharitable as to tell anybody that his present
route is wrong. Perhaps this is so. Nowadays its form is distorted; the
answer is given because an answer is necessary and something to meet the
case is readily produced.
Snakes, we were told, ate air. Unfertilized eggs could be made fertile by
being placed with fertilized eggs. A driver insisted that he could read
English; as proof he pointed out the name Studebaker on the front of his
lorry, but moved his finger right to left.
Our denial of these statements met only with more vigorous assertion and
the more fallacious their remark the more rapidly was our interruption brushed
aside. We never discovered the Persian for "I don't know."
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