156 



THE PIR. 



reigned the peculiar African and tropical still- 

 ness of noontide, deep and imposing, broken only 

 by the curlew's scream or by the tepid breeze 

 rustling the tree-tops in fitful gusts, whispering 

 among the matted foliage, and swooning away 

 upon the warm bosom of the wave. 



Amid such scenes we paddled and poled till 

 the setting sun spread its cloak of purple over a 

 low white cliff, upon whose feet the ripple broke 

 and on whose head lingered venerable trees that 

 stood out from the underwood of the lower banks. 

 Here lies the Pir of Wasin, a saint described by 

 our Baloch guide as a 'very angry, holy man' 

 (bard jabra Pir). A Sherif of pure strain, he 

 gallantly headed, in times long gone by, his Mos- 

 lem followers flying from Panga-ni, when it was 

 attacked by a ravenous herd of heathenry. The 

 infidels seem to have had the advantage in run- 

 ning : they collared the Paitliful at these cliffs, 

 and would have made mince-meat of them, when 

 Mother Hertha, at the prayer of the Pir, opened 

 wide and received them in her bowels. This 

 Shaykli will not allow the trees to be felled or 

 the floods to rise above the level of his grave : 

 moreover, if the devotee, after cooking food at the 

 tomb in honour of its tenant, venture to lick his 

 fingers — the usual succedaneum for napkins in 



