456 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by L,t.-Col. Alfred Heinicke 



A BAKER SHOP IN A SHIRAZ STREET 



The Persian Government takes drastic steps to punish the baker who overcharges his cus- 

 tomers, one method of punishment being to bake the malefactor in his own oven. 



gesticulation and attempted explanation, 

 mixing in, as we always did, Arabic, 

 Hindustani, or even English words where 

 Persian failed. We borrowed their 

 horses and rode on toward our destina- 

 tion, Kumishah. 



the; blood sacrifice:: our honor was 



SAVED 



We came to cultivated fields, where, 

 even before the sun was up, here and 

 there one could see puffs rising that 

 floated off and vanished like the smoke 

 from a tug down the harbor on a frosty 

 morning. It was the dust from the grain 

 tossed high in the light breeze by the win- 

 nowers (see Color Plate XIV). We 

 drew nearer. 



All at once my horse bounded, as one 

 of our guards lowered his gun and took 

 several shots at the peasants. 



"What are you doing?" my companion 

 shouted, horrified, forbidding the guard 

 to reload. 



"Must kill one those men. Insulted 

 you," said the road-guard in Persian, and 

 lie made a determined effort to fire again. 



"What do you mean ?" my friend asked, 

 seizing the guard's arm. 



"Come to them early this day when you 

 lost. Ask where are fi r an gi- sahibs (for- 

 eigners). They say, 'Don't know. We 

 thresh grain. What for Urangi-sahibs 

 come bother us in Persia ?' Insulted you. 

 We fire them. Dark, no kill. Come 

 back. Kill one now." 



He was dissuaded with great difficulty. 



The worst part of this is that undoubt- 

 edly the charge of insult was false. The 

 road-guards knew that the khan, their 

 overlord, would hear that we got lost. 

 This was entirely our own fault, but he 

 might think we said so to shield our 

 guides. They might be bastinadoed or 

 more severely punished, for the khan has 

 practically life-and-death power over all 

 in his region. 



YKXDIKIIAST, T I E 1C MOST EXTRAORDINARY 



Town in PERSIA 



These guards, therefore, were going to 

 kill an innocent peasant, a serf who was 

 bought with the village, in order to say 

 to the khan that we had been avenged, 



