By the Way 1 39 



ruined tower or two, stand out against the sky. 

 The stony path, that may be a main trade-route, 

 struggles up the hill, tops the low crest, and on 

 the other side there opens before you a precisely 

 similar prospect, the same level plain, the same 

 far blue ramparts. 



During nearly four years in Persia, we saw 

 much of this sort of thing. For more than six 

 months in each year we were occupied, like the 

 Arabs, "in folding our tents," and " silently 

 stealing away." As to the sport obtained on 

 these Persian treks, there is fortunately always 

 something to look out for. Even near the more 

 thickly, I should rather say the less thinly, 

 populated tracts, where villages are only separated 

 by a mile or so, and there is no chance of seeing 

 gazelle, one can hope to see bustard ; in fact 

 these fine birds (the large variety) are often 

 found within a few miles of Meshed. 1 In Kain 

 and Seistan, the smaller bustard is found, called 

 Houbara, a name that is supposed to be a 

 corruption of the Persian word ahu-barra, the 

 young of an ahu or gazelle, to which the bird 

 may be thought by the fanciful only to bear 



1 Major Sykes and the other officers of our Consulate-General at 

 Meshed make bags of as many as twelve or fifteen bustards (otis- 

 tarda) in a day, by having them driven up to guns by mounted 

 sowars. 



