take my bed before him on the saddle, and then we got on better.
It was cold, most of the rivulets were frozen, and only the outlines of the surrounding hills could be seen, though the moon shone brightly and clearly. A crack announced that the pole had given way, and the frightened horses would have run away if the horseman with the bed in front of him had not chanced to be before them, and managed to bring them to a halt. We stopped at the kavekhaneh of Binab to repair the damage, and took the opportunity of warming ourselves with a cup of tea.
Then we rattle on again along a good road till we come to our night-quarters at the miserable chaftarkhaneh of Kara-bulak.
It is cool up here on the heights, and when we set out on December 11, the thermometer marks 28° at seven o'clock. Fairly near the southern mountains are seen the town of Sultanieh, and the green cupola of the mosque tomb of Shah Khoda Bende, which soon disappears in the mist-wreaths raised by the warmth of the morning and hovering like a cloud over the town. The road is again in a bad state, for there has been more rain, and the mud is partly frozen and lumpy, partly covered with a thin crust of ice, but soft underneath. The Senjan-chai itself is not visible, but the village Husseinabad, with its tall straw stacks, is probably situated on its upper course. The landscape is exceedingly monotonous, and has not changed much during the two preceding days ; there are the same skirting ranges north and south, the same Senjan-chai, and the same dreary steppe with the road and the small caravans. But we have passed the boundary between Turki and Farsi, and all the names are now Persian. Tabriz is here pronounced Terbis and Senjan Sengan.
At Amirabad's kavehkaneh were halting at the same
time as ourselves four corpses from Tabriz which had a long journey before them, for they were to be buried at Kerbela, near the grave of Hussein, and they, or more correctly their escort, said that the dead travellers had thirty-five days' journey to Kerbela. They were stowed in their long deal coffins, narrowing to the foot, and were sewed
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