PUECHASE OF CAMELS FOR MILITARY PURPOSES. 209 



ranges are only broken by dere, (passes,) narrow valleys, wliicb open 

 upon a desert covered with crystallized salt, under which are here 

 and there enormous quicksands, in which sometimes man and beast 

 are swallowed up without the possibility of receiving assistance. 

 Elsewhere this desert is covered with moving sands,* in which an 

 oasis occasionally appears as an island in the sea. Indeed, a large 

 portion of the soil is without vegetation, without water, and perfectly 

 uninhabitable. 



THE EQUIPiMENT OF THE BELOUTCHIS, AND THEIR INCURSIONS INTO 



PERSIA. 



The successive use of different arms has modified, accordingly, the 

 equipment of the dromedary. We will endeavor to describe the 

 changes it has successively undergone. 



Before the invention of fire-arms, the dromedary was, according to 

 the accounts of Grecian historians, and apparently, mounted and 

 equipped as they still are now by the Beloutchis, who have not all 

 profited by the improvements in arms. When these Nomads, who 

 are constantly at war with Persia, wish to make an incursion into 

 Kerman, they are organized in the following manner : Each drome- 

 dary is mounted by two men, who ride back to back upon a wooden 

 saddle. The front one guides the animal by a rope bridle fastened to 

 the headstall. He is armed with a bow and arrows ;t a sword hangs 

 by his side ; and a shield, covered with leather, is thrown over his 

 shoulder. The other, facing the tail of the animal, has no projectiles ; 

 he is there to cover the retreat, and, in consequence, is armed only 

 with a long kama, (poignard,) or sabre, and with a long lance. Their 

 provisions consist of barley bread for fifteen days, curdled milk in a 

 skin bag, and a leather bottle of water suspended under their animal's 

 belly. To which is added, whenever they can get it, lumps of asa- 

 foetida, of which they are very fond. A number of dromedaries thus 

 equipped leave the province of Bampour, cross the desert_, and fall 

 suddenly upon the provinces of Kerman, or Yezd, carrying death and 

 destruction into all the villages through which they pass, and plun- 

 dering and massacreing the caravans. | The governors of these two 

 provinces send in pursuit of them horsemen and dromedaries, better 



* When Pottinger ent(3red the great desert of Kerman, he saw that its surface differed 

 from those of the deserts of Africa and Arabia ; there was something in it more forn.idable. 

 The particles of sand are so hght and fine, that, held in the hand, they are scarcely percep- 

 tible to the touch. Impelled by the wind, they form hills, of which one side, almost perpen- 

 dicular, resembles a brick wall, as much in form as in color, from the reddish hue of the sand. 

 The side exposed to the wind presents, on the contrary, a gentle slope. The traveller has to 

 find his way through these ranges of sand-hills in the narrow passes or ravines between them. 

 It is very difficult to cross these ranges, particularly to climb their steep sides ; and one is 

 often baffled in the attempt, and obliged to turn them. They are from 10 to SH feet in height. 

 The dromedaries actively scale the sloping side, their large feet preventing them from sink- 

 ing into the sand. Arrived at the top, they kneel and slide down, carrying the sand with 

 them ; the first thus opening a breach through which the others follow. The sand flying 

 through the air gives to the atmosphere the appearance of a thick fog, and, penetrating the 

 mouth, the eyes, and the nostrils, produces a painful irritation and excessive thirst. 



t Within a few years some of them have been seen armed with long match-locks. 



J The Beloutchis do not regard themselves as lawful possessors of booty until they have 

 slain its owner. 



Ex. Doc. 62 14 



