XI. Wild Sheep in Khorassan. 



" In that delightful province of the sun, 

 The first of Persian lands he shines upon." 



MOORE. 



LOOKING north-east from the city wall of Meshed, 

 there can be seen in the distance a purple mass 

 of mountains that day by day during the torrid 

 heats of summer sends forth an invitation, tempt- 

 ing in promises of coolness. The time came when 

 acceptance could no longer be delayed, and early 

 one morning my wife and I left our temporary 

 home in the British Consulate-General. 



That the start was made by stepping into a cab 

 will seem to accord ill with what has gone before, 

 yet such was the prosaic fact. It is in this way 

 that the up-to-date Persian always travels. If he 

 has to journey from the capital to Meshed some 

 five hundred miles he hires a "four-wheeler." 

 To go thence to Seistan, about the same dis- 

 tance, he engages the same useful vehicle. The 

 humorous part of the business is that there are 



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