Black Partridges j 



out of the earth, clay bluffs carved into fantastic 

 shapes, dunes with horns pointing southwards, 

 trees stunted and with a permanent list in the 

 same direction, every building, the ruins even of 

 buildings of the most ancient times, oriented 

 southward. The windmills of Seistan are the oldest 

 form known a tower four-square, slit vertically 

 to allow the passage of the wind : inside, fans 

 of reeds driven round a vertical spindle. These 

 tell the same tale. Man himself has not escaped, 

 as a big proportion of the people are afflicted 

 with a peculiarly bad form of eye disease, origin- 

 ated by wind and dust. 



My first experience of a winter wind was when 

 in camp with my wife and two children. Close 

 by flowed the blue Eud-i- Seistan, around waved 

 the green and yellow grass, while clumps of 

 tamarisks stood out a darker green against a blue 

 sky. The sun was bright, the air cool. Next 

 morning a little wind, which by midday had in- 

 creased, and I spent a profitable evening shooting 

 duck coming down the river. Our men, recognising 

 the weather, took in canvas or its camp equivalent. 

 Stones were piled on the tent pegs, ropes tautened, 

 and everything made "snug "for the night. By 

 sunrise it was blowing. I shot a few more 

 ducks that came labouring against the wind, 

 but they were coming too slow and low 



