144 By Mountain, Lake, and Plain 



in the history of the human race. Children 

 express both joy and grief by rolling, though 

 I am sure they could not say why. 



There is something very pitiable about a camel 

 in difficulties, whether on soft ground like this or 

 on the surface -slippery ground one gets on the 

 baked white plains of Seistan after rain. On the 

 latter the danger he is liable to, and the poor 

 beast knows it well, is to come down in the posi- 

 tion a skating novice may have horrible visions 

 of when he feels his legs sliding in opposite 

 directions. The Persians call it shikasta (broken). 

 A camel was once being ridden across a piece of 

 slippery ground like this just in front of me. It 

 was only a hundred yards in width, and the rider 

 had not thought it worth dismounting for. The 

 camel, however, seemed to have a horrible pre- 

 science of his fate, as he was uttering lamentations 

 that could be heard a mile off. Then down he 

 came, in such a way that there was nothing for 

 it but to destroy him at once. 



Worse still was an incident of pathos I wit- 

 nessed on the Trans-Caspian railway. The train 

 was pursuing its usual unrapid course through a 

 plain dotted over with Turkomans' camels, when 

 I felt a slight shock and saw an unfortunate 

 beast hobble down the embankment on his 

 stumps, with his broken legs trailing. There he 



