io8 By Mountain^ Lake, and Plain 



it is a " madan-i-ahu" a " mine of gazelle," in 

 which case it is likely that we shall see something 

 in the course of the next farsakh or two. What 

 by the way is a farsakh? An Englishman in 

 Persia will tell you it is four miles, a Eussian that 

 it is three versts ; but really it is the distance one 

 can hear a drum's beat, or can distinguish between 

 a white camel and a black, that a laden mule 

 can traverse in an hour, or in which a wayfarer's 

 puttie comes untied. It varies with the age 

 and activity of the speaker, according to the 

 province, the nature of the ground, and many 

 other things. 



It may be our shepherd will say, "Be ahu 

 nist" The plain is "not without ahu" not 

 " gazelle-less," so to speak a safe and non-com- 

 mittal reply. It may be he will hold forth with 

 some enthusiasm about a plain where gazelle are 

 never out of sight ; but cross-examination will 

 elicit the additional information that it is three 

 or four days' march in the opposite direction to 

 the one you happen to be travelling. So the 

 shepherd is left to his solitudes once more. 



Though the plain does indeed seem " ahu-le&s" 

 it is not without life of other kinds : desert larks, 

 an occasional hare, jerboa bounding into their 

 holes like miniature kangaroos, a flock of courser 

 birds running daintily along uttering their high 



