Misfortunes--Suffocating heat--An expected
attack--Electricity--Strayed camels--A barber and his ways--A
track to Meshed--Pilgrim husband and wife across the
desert--Another long march--A salt stream--Brackish well.
Many misfortunes befel us at this place. We had made our camp in the
oasis of palm trees at the foot of the mountain, and as the camels were
much worn out we were unable to proceed on our journey the same evening.
The heat during the night under the palm trees was quite suffocating, and
I had to remove my bedding into the open where one could breathe a little
better.
The camel men feared that during the night we might be attacked by the
villagers and we made ready for any emergency, but nobody came.
There was so much electricity in the air that it gave quite an unpleasant
feeling, and had a curious effect upon one's skin. The cats on coming in
contact with the woollen blankets discharged sparks all over, and sparks
also snapped from one's fingers on touching anything that was a good
conductor of electricity.
A wild animal came into our camp during the night and carried away some
newly-purchased hens. We had been told that there were many wolves and
foxes in the neighbourhood.
In the morning we were confronted with what seemed a disaster. Eleven
camels of our combined caravans had disappeared. Had they been stolen or
had they run away? The camel men were in tears, and, instead of going to
look for them, sat on the loads sobbing bitterly and wiping the tears
from their eyes with the skirts of their long coats. A ray of hope arose
when we discovered their tracks. They had made for some hot water
springs, some miles to the east, and judging from their footprints were
evidently travelling at a great pace. Two men on other camels were
despatched after them, and we had to resign ourselves to a delay of
another day.
Curiously enough, there was a sudden change in the temperature, and the
thermometer in the sun only registered 105°, which made us feel quite
chilly after the 140° and 150° of previous days. Our camp was at an
altitude of 3,810 ft. (at the foot of the Naiband Mountain).
Sadek took the opportunity of the delay to set everything tidy, and we
had a great washing day. He sent for a barber in the village to trim his
hair and beard. The Naiband Figaro was an extraordinary creature, a most
bare-faced rascal, who had plenty to say for himself, and whose peculiar
ways and roaming eyes made us conceal away out of his sight all small
articles, for fear that he should walk away with them. He carried all
the tools of his trade around his waist in a belt, and ground his razor
first on a stone which he licked with his tongue, then using his bare
arms and legs for stropping purposes, as snapshotted in the accompanying
photograph.
The camel men--on whom he was first requested to experiment--he shaved,
splashing their faces with salt water during the process, but Sadek, the
next victim, produced a cake of soap with which he luxuriously lathered
his own face, and which the barber scraped gradually from the chin and
cheeks and every now and then deposited the razor's wipings on his
patient's head.
We were able to buy some fresh water skins, and this time they were
really water tight. The natives, naturally, took every advantage of us in
the bargains, but we were able to purchase a lot of fresh provisions,
which we needed badly, and men and beasts felt none the worse for our
compulsory halt.
In the middle of the second night we were waked up by some distant
grunts, and the camel men jumped up in great glee as they had recognised
the beloved voices of some of their strayed camels. A few minutes later,
in fact, the whole eleven were brought back by the two men who had gone
in search of them. They had found them some twenty miles off.
From Lawah to Naiband we had come practically due north, but from this
camp to Birjand the way lay due east for the first portion of the
journey. At 160° b.m. (S.S.E.) in the desert rose a high mountain.
We had everything ready for our departure, but the camel men were in a
dreadful state as some villager had told them that the news had spread
that the strong boxes which the _ferenghi_ had were full of silver and
gold--as a matter of fact there was hardly any left of either--and that a
raid was being arranged for that night to kill us and rob our baggage
when we were starting. The camel men spent the whole day polishing up the
old rifles they possessed and, much to my concern for their safety,
loaded them.
To allay their fears we made a sudden start at 5 p.m. instead of at the
hour of 10 p.m. which had been previously arranged.
One mile beyond Naiband a track branches to the north-east for Meshed,
and here we bade good-bye to a Persian husband and wife--he aged
twenty-eight, she aged twelve--who in the company of a donkey, were on a
pilgrimage from Yezd to the Sacred Shrine. We had picked them up in a
sorry plight in the desert, the husband riding the lame donkey, the girl
on foot and shoving both from behind. I could not help admiring their
enterprise. All the provisions they had carried were a few cucumbers,
figs, and a load of bread, nearly all of which were exhausted when we
found them. On remonstrating with the strapping youth for riding the
donkey while he made his poor wife walk, he replied that they had been
newly married and it would not do for a man to show consideration for a
wife so soon!
She, being a city girl, was a bundle of clothing and we could not see her
face, but she seemed a nice meek little thing, with pretty hands and
feet. On being asked whether she was tired, a thread of voice from under
her _chudder_ said she was, and on being invited to ride one of my camels
on the top of a load, there was a giggle which meant "yes."
The selected camel was brought down on his knees, and Sadek and Ali Murat
hauled her up in the most approved style; she having an evident joke at
her selfish husband for having a better mount than he after all.
Unfortunately, the poor child was so exhausted that after she had gone
some distance, with the swaying of the camel she became fast asleep, lost
her balance and fell on her head. Nobody delighted in the misfortune more
than her lord and master, who did not fail to impress upon her that this
was evidently Allah's punishment for her vanity in trying to be superior
to her better half! Rubbing her aching skull, and much concerned at the
_chudder_ having got torn, the bride thought she had better resign
herself to walk after all.
Here, too, as in other parts of the desert, near mountainous regions we
found the usual deep, cut channels carrying into the desert the overflow
of rain water from the Naiband Mountain, and the many little hills at its
foot; otherwise in the thirty-six miles which we covered during the night
there was absolutely nothing of interest.
When we had gone some ten miles from Naiband the camel men, tired of
carrying their matchlocks, slung them to the saddles and professed the
danger of an attack over. We were in the open again. I was much troubled
by my fever, which had seized me violently and brought on aches all over
my body.
We camped at 3,480 feet, having descended 330 feet in thirty-six miles,
an almost perfectly flat stretch except a hillock or undulation here and
there. My fever continued so fierce the whole day that I had not the
strength to stand up nor the inclination to eat, the exhaustion caused by
the very high temperature being indescribable.
We left at 7 p.m., meaning to make another long march. The night was
intensely cold, with a terrific wind sweeping from the north-east.
Several times during the night, when we came across a tamarisk shrub or
two, we halted for a few minutes to make a bonfire and warm our frozen
hands and toes. We actually came across a stream of brackish water--four
feet broad, and about two to three inches deep--the largest stream we had
seen since entering the desert, and having been twelve hours on the
saddle to cover only twenty-four miles, camels and men shivering
pitifully from the cold, and the latter also from fever, we made camp in
a spot where there was an abundance of tamarisks and a deep well, the
water of which was fully twenty feet below the earth's surface.
A small basin had been excavated next to the well. We filled it with
water by means of a bucket, and it was a real pleasure to see the camels
crowding round it and satisfying their thirst of two days. We did not
allow them to drink the water of the brackish stream.
The elevation of this camp was 3,890 feet.