AT THE MUD HOUSE • 6l 



the ever-ready mate, and watched the roast of mutton 

 sizzle before the glowing embers. Finally it was ready and 

 the seven of us (there were three men in the hut) did not 

 leave much of it. 



After a long and decidedly broken chat during which 

 the herder told us he knew about North America where 

 Washington and Lincoln lived, and got out a little geogra- 

 phy which said so, they invited us to bring in our beds, 

 throwing sheep skins on the floor for us to unroll them on. 

 The boys and men had the general room, the beds covering 

 the entire floor, so they put the dog outside. He, how- 

 ever, protested loudly, but the door was shut on him, and, 

 not being able to get in where it was warm, he had to be 

 content with sticking his tongue in through the crack, and 

 getting what sociability there was in that. As chief I was 

 invited to share the old man's room with him. Being 

 among strangers and carrying considerable money, when 

 he was not looking I slipped my billbook under my pillow 

 and hung my coat in a conspicuous place. The old man 

 had heard of Americans, and when he thought I was not 

 watching, slipped a big two-foot knife under his pillow. 

 Then I saw that he was as afraid of me as I of him, and 

 turned over and went to sleep. Next morning before 

 starting we photographed our host and his house, the first 

 photographs he had ever seen taken. 



Then we started on what proved to be the crookedest 

 and worst trail we experienced in the country. Eight or 

 ten miles out, after building a fill over a deep gully, and 

 having plunged down one slope over the gully and up the 

 opposite pitch in a manner of which we were proud (though 

 in the process we pulled out the last ring in one saddle which 

 was capable of holding a rope), we met a horseman who 

 told us our road was worse ahead. He was right, for the 

 trail, even then obscure, soon broke up into several single 

 wagon tracks and by night there was no trail at all ; but it 

 had brought us into another good bunch of exposures, and 



