Ibex 6 i 



was blotted out in swirling curtains of driving 

 sand. Then came some thunder, and forked 

 lightning flashed through the murky yellow. A 

 half minute's burst of rain, and the air suddenly 

 cleared like a precipitate dissolved in a chemist's 

 beaker. The whole thing had taken but a brief 

 quarter of an hour. But the tents 



" I counted them at break of day, 

 But when the sun set where were they ? " 



So far as I could see, they had been swept clean 

 away. 



When I reached the draggled camp, my wife 

 told me of the hurricane that had burst on them 

 and flattened the tents. The family struggled out 

 of the tent debris, and all, including dog and the 

 children's pet tortoise, took refuge in the takht- 

 i-rawan (mule litter), which was held from being 

 carried bodily away by escort sowars and levies. 

 From this point of comparative security the 

 housewife (and ex officio chief commissariat officer) 

 had to look on helplessly and see her cook- 

 house, with pots and pans, bring driven away 

 before the wind into the desert. Thus were 

 we overtaken by the wrath of Baba Kahdar. 



