Wild Sheep in Seist an 133 



of Persia. It is a sort of shoe called giva, made 

 in the country, the uppers woven of cotton in 

 the shape of the foot, the soles of cotton cloth, 

 somehow pressed, while in a wet state, into a 

 board-like consistency, hard and polished. After 

 a little wear, the sole gets a rough surface that 

 clings to rock better than anything I know. I 

 was told that a party of Japanese a people that 

 seem to have the faculty of extracting the best 

 from the whole world, in the course of a tour 

 in Persia, found the giva the only thing worthy 

 of commendation to their countrymen. Poor 

 Persia ! That it should be the epitaph of a 

 great and historic people, that they made good 

 shoes ! However, the givas are really excellent. 

 To our dismay we had hardly done half the 

 climb when there came a rattle of stones from 

 above us, and a herd of the sheep topped the hill 

 and were gone. Among them was an undoubtedly 

 big beast. They must have got our wind, for as 

 I had carefully spied the hill before climbing, I 

 do not think they could have seen us. We fol- 

 lowed the herd to the top, then down, tracked 

 them south along the far base of the hill, and half 

 an hour later spotted them moving slowly along, 

 their alarm apparently all evaporated. Here we 

 nearly got level with them among some ravines, 

 but they again began to climb, and we had to 



