PERSIAN CARAVAN SKETCHES 



463 



Photograph by Lt.-Col. Alfred Heinicke 



YOUNG PERSIA 



feet three, with huge arms, he had great 

 drooping mustache and a large nose with 

 similar proclivities, eyes that bulged so 

 that nearly half an inch of white showed 

 around the small brown irises, shaggy 

 black hair spreading out some six inches 

 over either ear, head shaven on top, giv- 

 ing the effect of semi-baldness, and a tiny 

 flat-topped black cap perched on the back 

 of his head, which artistically gave scale 

 to his romantic features. 



He had come back from killing and 

 skinning a little brown lamb that had 

 been given to us by the Khan of Dehbid 

 (see Color Plate IV). Standing there in 

 the sun, peering into the tent with a 

 broad grin, a blood-dripping, curved 

 knife in one hand, in the other the lamb- 

 skin glistening red as his hands — who 

 would not swear that this was the vision 

 of a nightmare from boyhood dreams of 

 the Arabian Nights? 



We had been told that the native Per- 

 sian villagers have the belief that every 

 European who appears is a hakim sahib 

 (doctor), so great is the reputation of 

 the few mission doctors ; consequently 

 we carried quite a stock of simple reme- 

 dies in order to humor them. After our 

 arrival at Gabarabad, a walled village of 

 unusual filth (Color Plate VII), a great 

 crowd of women carrying anemic babies, 

 of cancerous-looking individuals with 

 festering sores, and of many of all ages 

 partially blinded by that terrible eye dis- 

 ease of the East, gathered about us. 

 They said nearly a third of the village 

 folk had died recently after three days 

 of being kheili garni (very warm). It 

 seemed to be malignant malaria, so we 

 gave out as liberal portions of quinine as 

 possible. 



It is pathetic what suffering people 

 have to endure who have no ideas of 



