66 By Mountain , Lake, and Plain 



pathy, were two stalwart Cossacks. It seemed 

 that some of our cook's pals had been giving him 

 a cordial send off, and the Kussian Consul-General, 

 noticing on the road the insecurity of his seat, 

 had told off two of his own escort to bring him 

 safely into camp. Thus the entente was sealed 

 in Meshed ! 



Though the Eussian Consuls and their staffs at 

 Seistan were charming acquaintances, they had 

 little taste for field sports. Once when talk 



had turned on snipe - shooting, Monsieur 



announced to our surprise that he daily killed 

 them with a saloon pistol (with which he was 

 an excellent shot), in the Consulate garden ! 

 Later on, it turned out that his becassines were 

 a variety known in India as kuch nahins. 1 



As we ride on, patches of charred reeds and a 

 huge mushroom of smoke on the horizon show 

 the gaodars have begun burning. These people, 

 distinct from the agricultural population, own the 

 famous cattle of Seistan that are fattened on reeds 

 and the different Hamun grasses, and they burn 

 the reeds to encourage the next spring's growth. 



1 The Indian story goes that a newly arrived subaltern went 

 shooting snipe. Various water birds got up, and he knocked some 

 over. As each bird fell he asked his shikari what it was, and was 

 told kuch nahin i.e., nothing not a bird to be shot. On arrival 

 in the mess he announced his bag as one snipe and ten brace of 

 kuch nahins! 



