42 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



Keesh-Suffeed, the greybeard of the family, at length 

 came forward. In trembling accents he told us that 

 their house and all it contained were at our entire 

 disposal, and that he himself was our humble slave. 

 We assured the old gentleman that our servants 

 would not be allowed to touch anything in the 

 house ; and, presenting him with a few silver pieces, 

 he went away quite contented. We were on the 

 point of sitting down to our hard-boiled eggs and 

 cold fowl, when the sound of a horse galloping 

 attracted our attention. We were on the flat terrace 

 on the top of the house. Thence we could see a 

 horseman galloping as if for dear life. He was 

 approaching us from the direction of Shiraz, leaving 

 a long line of dust behind him. He pulled up im- 

 mediately in front of our door. The Pardoner, who 

 had subsided into rather a secondary position in the 

 presence of the all-commanding gholaum, took advan- 

 tage of his momentary absence to assume the ques- 

 tioning of the stranger. He rushed out of the gate, 

 and seizing the horseman by the knee, commenced 

 eagerly to question him. " In the name of the 

 Prophet, Avhence come you ? " " Has the Prime 

 Minister had the stick ? " Or, " Has the ' Antelope ' 

 (the reigning monarch's favourite Avife, so-called) 

 born a son and heir into the world, that you ride in 

 such desperate haste]" The horseman threw him- 

 self out of the saddle; and, being anxious to keep 

 up a few minutes longer the curiosity which his 



