Wild Sheep in Khorassan 163 



carriage, in wild career down hill, and bumping 

 and swaying in a way that caused both passengers 

 the most lively alarm. My Persian servant now 

 came to the fore. Being light and agile, he swung 

 himself on to the box from the step without over- 

 balancing the cab as my weight certainly would 

 have done, thence on to the horses' backs, and 

 so he managed to get the reins and stop them 

 a very difficult feat, for which I was duly and 

 immediately grateful in the way that Persians 

 best understand. 



Our wheeled journey this morning was for a 

 short distance only, some fifteen miles to the 

 foot of the hills ; and as we rattled and bumped 

 down the main street, we felt thankful that this 

 was so. Our coachman drove with the reckless- 

 ness of his breed ; for whether it be that living 

 in the shadow of the great shrine of Meshed, 

 where to die is to die blest, makes the drivers 

 of that city more than usually careless of their 

 own and their passengers' necks, I do not know ; 

 but the fact remains that one and all display 

 what seems to the latter an unnecessary degree 

 of dash. Passers-by in the streets already begin- 

 ning to bustle, sleeping figures of men, children, 

 and dogs, these he shaved with impartial abandon ; 

 by a hair's-breadth he avoided staircases leading 

 down to hamams and subterranean chambers, and 



