3O By Mountain, Lake, and Plain 



time to see the veteran leaders of a herd of goats 

 emerge from a gorge. Throwing ourselves behind 

 a rock we lay in ambush, and surprised a diminu- 

 tive boy behind the herd, when too near to fly. 

 He was Eahmat 's own offspring, and the tactful 

 Ibrahim wormed from him the secret of his 

 father's abode. We were now hot on the trail. 

 In half an hour we were interrogating two bright- 

 eyed, rosy -faced young women I fear Kahmat 

 was a polygamist in his own encampment. The 

 lord of the harem had gone a-hunting "east," 

 they had heard a shot in that direction when the 

 sun was " so high." So off we set again, and 

 this time luck was on our side, for crossing a 

 ridge we suddenly came face to face with Eahmat 

 himself. 



His colour was very swarthy, his build slight, 

 hair long, black and matted, eyes dark and rather 

 bloodshot. His clothes were skins and rags. Al- 

 together he looked a low type of humanity. If 

 you asked Eahmat his tribe, he would tell you 

 he was a Baluch. Now there is a story that the 

 Baluch are the descendants of Gush, the father of 

 Mmrod. The truth is probably otherwise. I am 

 sure, moreover, that an ethnologist would have 

 placed Eahmat, not amongst the Baluch with 

 whom he claimed kinship, but amongst low 

 aboriginal peoples, such as the Seistan lake- 



