Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 173 (Color Image)

0173	Among the Celestials : vol.1

CHAP. VI.] A PLAGUE OF SANDFLIES 139

twenty-seven hours and three-quarters from

camp, including the halt of four and a half

hours. We had descended nearly four thousand

feet, and the heat down here was very much

greater than we had yet experienced. We

encamped near a well on the dry bed of a

river, on the skirts of what looked like a

regular park the country being covered with

trees, and the ground with long coarse grass.

It was most striking, as on the other bank of

the river there was not a vestige of vegeta-

tion.

After this long and trying march we (or I

at any rate) obtained scarcely a wink of sleep,

for the heat was stifling, there was not a breath

of air, and I was lying on the ground in a

Kabul tent pestered by a plague of sandflies,

which found their way into my eyes, nose, and

everywhere. That was the most despairing

period of my whole journey, and many times

that night I bewailed my folly, and swore by

all the gods I would never wander about the

wild places of the earth again. These periods

of depression must occur to every traveller.

He cannot help now and then asking himself

" What's the good of it all ? Why should I

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