mountains deep in snow, and then ascended by a steep pass on to higher ground, where snow lay to a depth of 6 or 8 inches. For the rest of the day we were winding about among hills, and in snow the whole time, till we reached a sheltered hollow in which were situated a couple of villages, where we camped. The 22nd was a miserable day: a thick white mist shrouded all the hills, heavy clouds hung low in the sky, while a biting wind blew in fitful squalls, adding to the feeling of discomfort already produced by the cold raw air. The camelmen had refused to take my advance-camp on overnight, and though they had started with daylight, I soon overtook them, and at one o'clock reached Mud, a large village on the edge of the snow. In addition to the village itself, which covered a considerable area, there was also a large walled enclosure or citadel a little apart from the rest. Having got here, and knowing my camels to be far behind, I sought some place of shelter, and was at first shown a miserable hovel which might have been an inferior cowshed, but which I was told was the serai! Here, the object of interest of an inquisitive crowd, who filled the open space which should have supported a door, I remained till a certain owner of camels, hearing of my arrival, came and invited me to rest in his house. showed me into a comfortable domed room, clean and tidy, with a carpet on the floor, and a spacious fireplace at one end in which he soon had a good fire burning, a luxury I had hardly hoped to enjoy. We remained for some time sitting on the floor opposite one another in front of the fire, an enforced silence, owing to my inability to speak or understand Persian, making it a little trying; but after a little while a friend dropped in, and they talked away to one another, interspersing their conversation with frequent remarks to me, though He they must have been quite aware of the futility of such a proceeding. Half an hour or so later my host went out, leaving his friend, however, to keep me company, and by degrees other friends dropped in one by one to have a look at the stranger, and in a very short time the room was full of people all squatting down on the floor, and all staring at me and talking and laughing and asking me questions, in spite of their receiving no answers, and of my repeated gestures and head-shakes, implying that I did not understand them. I have frequently found occasion to heap imprecations on the heads of the builders of the tower of Babel; but never have I done so more fervently than I did during the two hours and a half that I was the unwilling centre of interest of this impromptu durbar, while I waited for my dilatory camelmen. No sooner did one man take his departure than another took his place, and by this process of shuffling I must have been examined and stared at by a large percentage of the total population before Ralmat Khan at last returned to announce the arrival of my camp. During the night there was a slight fall of snow, and at seven o'clock I learnt that the camelmen had not started, and furthermore, that they refused to proceed during the day. This was a display of pure pig-headed obstinacy on their part, for we had been travelling through snow for the last two days, and, moreover, I could see that no snow lay on the plain between us and Birjand, so I informed them that if they did not start immediately they would receive not a single kran of pay. This brought them to their senses, and they got the camels loaded and started off. About 2 P.M. I reached Bujd, a village inhabited by Sunni Mohammedans, an unexpected phenomenon in a country which is the home of Mohammedans of the Shiah THE GUEST OF THE AMIR OF KAIN. 369 persuasion, and my camels being far behind, I went through the same menagerie-like performance as at Mud, being on view-free of charge-from two till five, when camp turned up. From here I sent word to hospital-assistant Abbas Ali, an Indian subject residing at Birjand as agent in the interests of Anglo-Indian trade, informing him of my arrival at Bujd, and requesting him to meet me on the morrow. The distance was not above seven miles, and at 10.30 I left Bujd, and shortly after starting was met by Abbas Ali and Munshi Oomar Din who was in charge of Seth Suleiman's branch at Birjand. A mile or two before reaching the capital we passed a large walled enclosure, containing a house and garden belonging to the Amir of Kain, whose headquarters are at Birjand, and shortly after midday entered the capital, a large mud town, and dismounted at a house which his Highness had very kindly put at my disposal during my stay in his city. Here I found welcome in the form of a present from the ruler, consisting of tea, loaves of sugar, and two gigantic trays piled high with a most pernicious-looking sweet composed of something like 80 per cent of sugar and 20 per cent almond: a truly useful gift to a traveller passing quickly through the country! For this delectable compound I had to disburse something like 100 krans to the grinning harpies who had brought it. It had been my intention to stay a couple of days at Birjand, and then to continue my journey north; but in no country that I know of is the truth of the saying that "Man proposes, but God disposes," so thoroughly and so frequently forced upon one as in Iran. In this case the devil of delay, which holds unquestioned sway over the country, was the instrument used to frustrate |