154 By Mountain, Lake, and Plain 



shadow never be less" "May your arm never 

 wax feeble," &c., &c. Then at the conclusion of 

 a visit : " It is now time I removed the cause 

 of inconvenience " " Inconvenience ! It is the 

 greatest pleasure ! You are removing your 

 gracious presence very quickly" "Permit me, 

 as far as the door" "What need of ceremony 

 between friends ! " " God be your protector,"- 

 and so on ad infinitum. 



Self-depreciation is sometimes carried to ex- 

 treme lengths. In the course of a conversation, 

 it would be an exhibition of bad manners not to 

 refer to oneself as a " slave," at least once or twice. 

 Once, when visiting a chief, his son, a pretty little 

 boy, walked in and nestled against his knee. 

 "Your son?" I asked. "My dog," was the sur- 

 prising answer. " Take him, he is your property." 

 Now a dog, a sag, is an animal of so mean a status 

 that a plate that has been licked by one cannot 

 be used again till it has been washed seven times, 

 and also purified by earth. The price of a dog is 

 coupled with wages of a very disreputable char- 

 acter, as haram unlawful. Sporting dogs very 

 fortunately and conveniently come under a differ- 

 ent category. For them and for pet dogs Persians 

 use a more honorific word, tuli. The word, how- 

 ever, which this gentleman employed with refer- 

 ence to his offspring, was sag. 



