Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 February 1891 — RAIDING IN PERSIA. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

RAIDING IN PERSIA.

How the Natives Protected Themselves from the Turkomans. Few countries suffered more from raiding in the past than Rersia. Turkoman hordes swept over its plains, and the Government was too imbecile to protect the people from beiDg plundered. The people, as a consequence, had to do the best they could to protect themselves. They constructed strong mud walls around their villages, and often an entire village was entered by one door, so low that a Turkoman on horseback could not pass through. The raiders generally did not lay siege to a place; they made a sudden dash; if it failed, they went away to try some other locality. The most remarkable instance of a village ith the necessary defensive conditions is Lasgrid, 100 miles east of Teheran. Instead of being encircled

by a defensive wall, it is built upon it. The wall is circular, thirty feed wide, and between thirty and forty feet high. Perched at this height, the people were out of danger. When word was given that a raid was to be made, the natives barricaded the entrance to their fort and defied their assailants. They continually kept their village provisioned. , A bow-legged man ought to be good at ten -pins.

THE FORTIFIED VILLAGE OF LASGIRD, PERSIA.