once the village Jaffaru, down below on the plain, with the usual burch, cupola roofs and a few palms, which are exceedingly strange in this icy wind. The village is surrounded on all sides by hills, which, however, leave an open space in the middle, and the country is open only to the north-north-east, and even here the H alvan hill forms a background in the distance. At its foot lies the village Halvan, which is said to contain a hundred houses and numerous palms ; it is reckoned 6 farsakh to this village.
Standing at a height of 3593 feet, the new Jaffaru has been inhabited for thirty years, and consists of fourteen houses with seventy - two inhabitants, who grow wheat, barley, turnips, beet, melons, pomegranates, mulberries, figs, and a small quantity of dates. The subterranean irrigation canal starts from the adjacent hill. The village has 2000 sheep, 18o camels, 10 asses, and one mule. In its present condition it has been inhabited thirty years (up to 1906), but it is much older, though it was aban- _ doned for a time owing to an attack of Baluchis. Its burch or little fort is said to be fifty years old, and was erected instead of an older one which had fallen into ruin. An old man, named Gulam Hussein, informed me that he had been kidnapped fifty years ago by Baluchis, and had been kept a prisoner for twelve months. The marauders had swept down like a storm wind on the unsuspecting village, and had loaded all the valuables they could find on their jambas or swift dromedaries, even human beings, and then had hastened on the long journey back to Baluchistan in fourteen days. But Gulam Hussein's father had, a year
later, gone to the country of the Baluchis and ransomed his :i son for 150 tuman. The farther we travel eastwards in J
these districts the more frequently we hear tales of such 1 adventures, and of the former raids of Baluchis on the 1 peaceful villages of the Persians.
Ibex, antelopes, and gazelles occur in the country, and leopards are not rare. A pack of nine wolves had for a long time boldly levied a tax on the flocks of the village, and killed as many as 200 sheep in the year. But now seven had been killed by a hunter who gained a small income by his gun. When a hunter kills a wolf he goes round with his
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