462 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by L,t.-Col. Alfred Heinicke 

 A NOMAD WOMAN PHYSICIAN BLINDING A PATIENT BY 



"cupping" 



When leeches are not to be had for blood-letting purposes the cup 

 method is employed. Messengers have been sent as far as 180 miles 

 on foot to get the blood-sucking worm for a wealthy patient (see 

 text, page 465). 



dad. We often stirred up small herds of 

 gazelle, which our guards generally went 

 wildly chasing after and once killed one ; 

 but tin's was the only feathered creature 

 that was shot. When the road-guard pre- 

 sented it to me, he started a long discus- 

 sion about America. My monosyllabic 

 answers seemed intelligible. 



A LOQUACIOUS ROAD-GUARD 



Persians, by the way, often call Amer- 

 ica Yangi Dunya (New World), which 

 has a curious phonetic resemblance to 

 Yankee Doodle. The most interesting 



fact I gathered from 

 him was that he had 

 seven sons and (many) 

 daughters — he did not 

 bother to count — and 

 two wives, one at 

 Abadeh and one at 

 Surmek. I found 

 most Mohammedan 

 worthies agreed that 

 though allowed four 

 legal wives, one is 

 generally enough, and 

 if two are owned they 

 are placed in separate 

 localities, as the say- 

 ing runs, "Better two 

 tigresses in a single 

 den than two brawl- 

 ing wenches." 



We paused, a week 

 later, during the heat 

 of one day at a small 

 encampment of Arab 

 nomads. These tribes 

 live in black tents 

 made from camel's 

 hair. With these they 

 move from the bor- 

 ders of Mesopotamia, 

 where they pass the 

 winter, up onto the 

 high plateau of cen- 

 tral Persia. Here they 

 graze their flocks and 

 reap one meager crop 

 of grain (see illustra- 

 tion, page 391). 



They are as primi- 

 tive as the old Semitic 

 wandering tribes be- 

 fore the days of Baby- 

 lon. They are, how- 

 peaceable and hospitable. 



AN ARABIAN-NIGHTS HOST 



We were taken into the tent of the 

 petty chieftain who ruled this obscure 

 tribe. 



Every one has retained from youth a 

 few vivid pictures from hearing the 

 stories of the Arabian Nights. Our host, 

 except for his clothes, which were far too 

 drab, looked indeed as if he had just es- 

 caped from one of those jars in which 

 Ali Baba's thieves were hidden. 



( )f enormous proportions, about six 



