IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Overland to India : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
322 OVERLAND TO INDIA
CHAP.
it is broiling hot quite early in the morning. The watch ig
in my vest pocket is so hot that I can scarcely touch it. 0
At nine o'clock we take our first draught from the indiarubber bottle, which is wrapped in wet canvas to keep the water cool by evaporation. We perspire very freely, and
have to drink a deal to keep ourselves cooler. As to sun- a
stroke, it may arise from some continuous heating up of the
brain substance, caused by direct and particularly powerful ~!
insolation. I wear thin, dark-blue clothes, and the watch in my pocket is much warmer ; but if I keep a white pocket handkerchief over the pocket the watch does not become warm. Similarly the brain is protected by an Indian helmet. For want of one I have wound a bath towel round my felt hat, and when there is a breeze, I lift the whole contrivance from time to time, and thus obtain a pleasant freshness.
The detritus fan is slightly uneven. In the hollows our view is limited, while on the eminences it extends to the distant horizon. A small dark knoll appears in the east-
rising out of the sandy waves of the desert sea. We are much surprised when the road turns off to the south, rises to the foot of the hills and enters a valley between barren weathered hills of grey porphyrite, where the heat is more oppressive than on the plain, for there we have the benefit of the slightest breeze, but here we are sheltered, being surrounded by dark heated cliffs. A post courier comes jogging along on his jambas, and a dukandar or tradesman is conveying his goods on several dromedaries to Seistan. From a small saddle (356o feet), in compact limestone, we see in the sunshine the bungalow and the other buildings of Saindek, and we hasten thither (3409 feet).
Here is a dispensary and a native doctor, who asks if any of our party has the plague. Here is a post and telegraph office and a banyah's shop in the bungalow, where rice, cakes, and matches may be bought, but nothing else. A community of Baluchi shepherds had their simple stone and earthen huts near by, and I paid them a visit on the following day, which was devoted to rest. They owned sheep and goats, were poor and ragged, and very like their Persian cousins. Their flocks must be easily satisfied
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