1 50 By Mountain^ Lake^ and Plain 



the money the means of purchasing rifles and 

 cartridges but could not sell without the agree- 

 ment of the wives, so I fear we were the innocent 

 cause of some family jars. Between these con- 

 flicting views a modus vivendi was usually found 

 by charging the Faranghi (Persian equivalent for 

 "foreign devil") a very fancy price. 



The villages passed are not as a rule interesting 

 either pictorially or otherwise : but of the in- 

 habitants I will say this much, that my memories 

 of the homely Persian peasantry, in their sober 

 coloured robes and ugly domed felt hats, are not 

 unpleasant. Their griefs and joys are those of 

 husbandmen all the world over, mainly con- 

 nected with deaths, births, and marriages. Once 

 a wedding procession passed near our camp in 

 the evening, and we turned out to see it. The 

 camp had seemed strangely deserted for a little 

 time before, and the reason was now apparent. 

 The cavalcade was mainly composed of my own 

 escort, whose services had been requisitioned to 

 impart glory to the proceedings and incidentally 

 perhaps to arouse unquenchable envy in the 

 bosoms of less fortunate neighbours. 



To the myrmidons of camp the bigger towns 

 offered greater attractions than either desert wilds 

 or villages. Not so to ourselves, for the cere- 

 monial and cocked -hatism that has to be sub- 



