8o By Mountain, Lake, and Plain 



muffled in garments that were only limited by 

 the necessity of getting gun to shoulder, and 

 wait for duck in a kula. Cold but exciting hours 

 were some of those spent by my wife, self, and 

 Don, watching for dim flying forms against the 

 fading rose and orange of the evening sky. That 

 one might see almost anywhere : what made the 

 picture essentially one of Seistan was the black 

 outline, low and long, of a crenelated fort wall, 

 and a single tall palm-tree, bowed with age and 

 a lifelong struggle with the wind, that swayed 

 above it. As for the sport, flight shooting is 

 much the same all the world over. The worst 

 of it was that during a Seistan gale the sky 

 was almost always clear, while one wants clouds 

 for a background after dark. 



Seistani shikaris do a lot of shooting from kulas 

 at night, but having nothing better than locally 

 made muzzle - loaders, only loose off at fowl on 

 the water. I call to mind an old Baluch sardar 

 in Seistan, of whom I should like to give a 

 picture. A drab domed cap, round which a 

 turban is loosely tied; under it a yellow face 

 deeply pitted, one eye, a parrot nose. A big 

 heavy form, minus an arm, clothed in loose 

 garments about which the stuff falls in super- 

 fluous folds and wrinkles. Among his accomplish- 

 ments was the art of divination by means of the 



