Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

 

XX XV I   CARAVAN LIFE   • 19

booty to all sheep and camel owners in the neighbourhood

and receives 2 kran from each. In this way he may collect

up to 4o tuman for a single wolf ; the same custom obtains

also in Western Persia. When a wolf steals sheep from a

fold the shepherds inform! the nearest hunter at once, and

he can easily follow the clear trail of the wolf, which drags

the last sheep he has killed with him and stops at a distance

of a farsakh to feast on his prey, and then sleep. The

hunter steals nearer and nearer along the ground, and fires

at a distance of Too or 15o paces. The two wolves still

left rejected all other food but mutton, but some of those

which were killed had also gone for the camels. They leap

on to the camel's back, crawl down to his neck and tear his

throat. The herdsmen know very well how many wolves

there are in the country, give them each names, and know

whereabouts their haunts are. Leopards, on the other

hand, are said seldom to attack sheep, but they lie in

ambush behind a rock or stones and spring out on an ibex

or gazelle.

Here, also, there was talk of wild camels in the Rig-i-jin,

but no one had seen them.

This year the precipitation had been unusually abundant,

and therefore the pasture would be rich and agricultural

products cheap ; in a word, it was a lucky year. With some

difficulty we succeeded in obtaining 3o batman of straw, and

as besides there was plenty of barley meal with which to

bake loaves for the camels, we decided to spend a day in

J affaru. It did not rain, but it was cold and raw, and after

frost in the night the temperature did not rise above 43.9°,

and next night we had seven degrees of frost.

It was difficult to induce the women of the village to sit

as models ; some agreed, but refused to let down their veils,

and the three who sat only partly removed them. They

excused themselves by saying that their husbands were away

tending sheep and camels, and that they could not take any

liberties during their absence. A young mother, with a child

at her breast, had just taken her seat, when her mother-in-law

came and drove her away with blows and stripes.

- In the evening Gulam Hussein was badly bitten in the

hand by our tall dark stallion, and the wound was bound up

VOL.